walt hOPKINS

Academic Experience
B.A., University of Nevada, Reno
Ed. M., Harvard University
M.A., University of California, Berkeley

Coaching Experience
High School Assistant & Head Coach - Reed H.S.
NCAA D1 Assistant Coach - Utah Valley University
WNBA Assistant Coach - Tulsa Shock, Minnesota Lynx
WNBA ​Head Coach - New York Liberty
FIBA Head Coach - Germany's Women's National Team

Coach Hopkins has over 15 years of experience as a basketball coach at the professional, collegiate, and high school levels, and has earned championship rings with both Reed H.S. (NV State; 2012) and the Minnesota Lynx (WNBA; 2017) as an assistant coach. While he has a wide-range of experience in almost every aspect of head and assistant coaching, Coach Hopkins specializes in: nuanced skill development at every position; improving individual footwork, finishing, and shot mechanics; teaching pick and roll scoring, passing, and reads; both team and individual film study; cultivating positive, growth-oriented mindsets in both coaches and players; and in breaking down high-level concepts to their component parts, allowing for players to grasp complex movements, reads, team strategies, etc. at the pace that best suits each individual.

Coach Hopkins earned his B.A. in English Writing from Nevada, and he holds master’s degrees from both Harvard and UC Berkeley, where his studies focused primarily on applying findings from Social, Developmental, and Educational Psychology to coaching settings. While studying at Berkeley, he also worked as an Academic Coach and Graduate Tutor for Cal athletes. While in the unique position of being both a mentor to college athletes and a graduate student studying coaching and pedagogy, Coach Hopkins discovered a passion for supporting students academically in many of the same ways he mentors them athletically.

In addition to his position as the Head Coach of Germany's Women's National team, Coach Hopkins currently travels around the world training WNBA, international, collegiate, high school, and youth basketball players by way of individual and small group lessons and recurring youth clinics, in addition to conducting development camps that feature a unique, player-centered, “classroom” component designed to maximize player engagement and learning. He has also been invited to host several private player development seminars over the past few years to augment the coaching, developmental, and mentoring strategies of several major collegiate basketball coaches. With all of that in mind, Coach Hopkins' primary focus is applying his extensive coaching experience and graduate studies to building a revolutionary basketball academy in his hometown of Sparks, NV.