Hopkins’ progress makes her feel like dancing

Add another talent to the list for Priest River High’s three-sport standout Lacy Hopkins.

As if being an all-Intermountain League basketball and volleyball player and excelling for the Spartans in track isn’t enough, it turns out Hopkins has the gift of dance.

Hopkins, whom fans can catch on stage performing an upbeat routine to a Michael Jackson number at this year’s Junior Miss competition, took time recently to talk some track.

“It’s really fun this year; I really enjoy it,” said Hopkins, a junior.. “And I’m doing a lot better than I usually do – I think it has a lot to do with getting more experience and just being stronger physically.

“It also seems like the coaches are pushing us a lot harder in practice this year.”

Hopkins has posted the state’s top 3A times this spring in the 200 meters (26.6 seconds) and 400 (59.7), but getting over 5 feet, 2 inches in the high jump – 2 inches off the school record – seems to put the biggest twinkle in her eye.

“It’s been a struggle,” she said of the high jump, which requires competitors to hoist every bit of their body up and over a flimsy horizontal bar. “My eighth-grade year, I just went out and did it and I jumped 4-11 – I have no idea how I did it, I was just going by feel.

“Once I got to high school, it was all about technique, and I think that just confused me to the point where I almost quit. This year, I’m going back to doing like I was doing it before, and it seems to be working.”

What better way to challenge all this ability than to set some lofty goals?

“I really want to be the state champion (in the high jump), because I think my number is right up there,” said Hopkins. “I look forward to that every day going to practice – that’s what I think about.”

As for Junior Miss, Hopkins said she likes the program, wouldn’t mind earning a little help in the scholarship department and was thrilled to learn that she, indeed, has just the one left foot.

“It’s like a ballet kind of dance, but with a faster pace,” she said of her routine. “I didn’t think I would be very good at it, but I’ve worked on it a lot and it’s a lot of fun.

“It’s going surprisingly well.”