Common traits tie local signees

Both started playing basketball early, both have fathers who coach high school basketball in Las Vegas, both became stars in the sport.

But on the eve of what undoubtedly will be the most important decision of their lives, Mojave's Chelsea Hopkins and Durango's Lindy La Rocque are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Two girls, two friends, two stars.

Two emotions.

"I can't sleep," said La Rocque, who along with Hopkins was one of three local girls to sign national basketball letters of intent Wednesday. "I'm just really excited. I talked to (Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer) earlier today. Right now it hasn't hit me. I want to make it official.

"I talked to my sister an hour ago, and I started thinking about it and getting too nervous. It probably is the biggest decision of my life."

Hopkins, meanwhile: "I guess you could say I'm relieved. I'm happy to know it's set in stone. I wouldn't say it's overwhelming, but I know it's going to be completely different than how it is now.

"But I think I'm ready for the challenge."

And that is the common thread.

Both accept that their new destinations -- Duke for Hopkins, Stanford for La Rocque -- won't be easy. Each school presents academic hurdles as well as athletic.

But both also are eager for next summer to start, when each will attend summer school at her respective school.

They have good reason to be anxious -- they're 17-year-old girls dying to get out of the house.

But don't tell their fathers.

"I'm so excited about the new environment," said Hopkins, a 5-foot-7-inch point guard. "It's so different from Vegas; that's what I'm trying to get away from.

"I'm excited to be in a new area and establishing myself at a new place."

Added La Rocque, a 5-9 point guard: "I really am 200 percent sure that this is the perfect place for me. When I do think that I'll be there for the next four years, I am really excited. And thankfully for me, I'm not going to college to look ahead to parties.

"I'm not any kind of regular college student. I'm going for basketball; I'm going for my education."

So one girl is nervous, one girl is calm, and both fathers are sad.

The father-daughter relationship is sacred, even more special between these two pairs.

Basketball has been a uniting factor between Tony and Chelsea Hopkins and Al and Lindy La Rocque, and while neither coach pushed the game on his daughter, both girls pushed it on themselves.

And now, with basketball as their vehicle for success, both girls will head off to the next phase of their lives.

And both coaches, both fathers, won't be there.

"It's the little things that are gonna be gone," Mojave boys basketball coach Tony Hopkins said. "The drives to school -- I've had wonderful conversations with her, father to daughter, coach to player. I like to say that I've been married to two women for so long. I just melt when she asks me for stuff. I cannot tell her no."

Al La Rocque echoes Tony Hopkins' sentiments, though he has done this before. His other daughter, Ally, a four-year starter at Durango, left home last year for Oklahoma.

"It's going to be easier this time -- I'm going to be retired," said La Rocque, who stepped down as Durango's boys coach after last season. "We didn't do all of this to send her into the wild blue yonder, to not see her. I'm going to her games. All of them -- I'll be at all of them.

"Now I'm going to retire to the gym."