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“Mighty” Mia Hopkins strode into both gyms — Solomon/Plains Middle School in the morning and Pittston’s Martin Mattei Middle School in the afternoon — exuding the confidence success brings. And success she has, having managed to be good enough with a basketball to be one of only three women currently playing for the world famous Harlem Globetrotters.
But it isn’t the success she focused on when she talked to students at assemblies last week as part of an outreach by the Globetrotters, who will be at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Feb. 12. It was the failures, one after another, that the former Pittston Area basketball standout had overcome since leaving the area. At Solomon/Plains, she recounted the story to students and a reporter, the same — if shorter — story she had told the Times Leader last December when she was recruited for the team known for wily basketball handling and shot tricks.
Mia started playing basketball as a child, first holding a ball when she was 2 and playing in the driveway, then at the Y, then in high school, where she hit the impressive benchmark of scoring her 1,000 high school career point in January of 2012, her senior year.
With that kind of tenacity, skill and track record one might think she was set for smooth sailing. Not true. She struggled to find the right fit in higher ed, ultimately playing for two other universities before finishing her college career at West Chester, where she started all 29 games, averaged 15.5 points per game and set a team high with nine rebounds per game. She led the Golden Rams in 11 major statistics.
Attempts to go pro proved harder, despite her record. Mia went to Europe thanks to generosity from her grandfather, and played a game in France, using a highlight clip from that outing to lure other recruiters with scant success. She played briefly in the Czech Republic, Ireland and Greece before severe tendinitis led to being released from the team.
“That was the turning point in my life,” she said last December. “I had no money, nothing to do, literally having to start from ground zero, so I started back at the YMCA and began to grind it out.”
Things seemed to be looking up in March 2020 when she planned to play in Brazil. You remember March 2020? The COVID-19 pandemic shut most of the world — and her plans — down.
Ever undaunted, Mia took a crack at getting into the Women’s National Basketball League, attending a WNBA combine. “I had the worst day of my life,” she told students at the Plains Middle School. Of course, she rebounded, getting a crack at a tournament in the Dominican Republic, which led to a semi-pro team in Texas, where she suffered a dislocation of her shooting arm in a game.
At that point, most of us would likely take so much bad luck and failure amid the successes as a sign that, maybe it was time to pick another career. But after re-hab for the arm she got one more break: a chance to tryout for the Globetrotters. Her presence in the uniform spinning the iconic red, white and blue ball on her index finger at both schools tells what happened next.
It’s a very compelling story of perseverance, focus and determination to keep overcoming obstacles, one we hope inspired at least some of the students to see how commitment can get you through many a hurdle in life. Without meaning insult, Mia is not a particularly imposing person, physically. But in manner, mein, grit and personal history, she truly is “Mighty.”