NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Growing up in scenic Newport Beach, California, Haley Hopkins knew it would take some place special to lure her away from the comforts of home and the West Coast.
Nashville and Vanderbilt fit that bill more than she could have ever imagined.
“I wouldn’t leave California if it wasn’t for a place like Nashville,” Hopkins said. “Coming on my visit, I wanted college to be an opportunity to live away from home and try something completely different – but it had to be the right setup. My parents, when they come and visit, my mom and dad absolutely love Nashville, so I would say that’s even an added bonus because they want to come out as much as possible.
“I think Nashville is such a special place. It’s really an up-and-coming city, even in the last three years of being here, seeing the growth and everything the city has to offer – there’s really something special about this place.”
Hopkins is a rising star for the Vanderbilt soccer team. The 2018 SEC Freshman of the Year, first-team all-conference selection and All-America selection led the Commodores in goals (14) and assists (7) as a redshirt-freshman after recovering from a knee injury in 2017.
59’ » HALEY HOPKINS AGAIN‼️

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— Vanderbilt Soccer (@VandySoccer) September 13, 2019
Goals have been relatively harder to come by this season (although she still has found the back of the net nine times in 12 games). Defenses around the conference have begun to clamp down on Vandy’s biggest offensive weapon.
Hopkins admitted she has struggled with that adjustment this fall.
“At first it was very frustrating and irritating that I couldn’t make the runs that I wanted to play, couldn’t do what I wanted to do because of the number of defenders that were marking me. It kind of took the fun out of soccer for a little bit,” she said. “I was like, ‘I just want to come out here and play – I just can’t.’ But over the last couple of weeks I’ve tried to develop a different mindset going into a game. I should see this as flattering.
“This will be a challenge for me, but not in the negative way that I saw it, but in a way to develop and further myself as a soccer player. I’ve been working on different things and hopefully it’ll get there eventually. I’ve tried to change from a negative challenge in my frustrations into saying. ‘OK, what can I do with this now and how can I personally defeat a defender in a different kind of way.’ ”
Adjusting to the challenges on the field has sort of simultaneously run course with Hopkins’ adjustments off of it. She recently switched to a business minor while continuing to major in medicine, health and society.
The forward signed up for an internship over the summer at the Clinic at Mercury Courts in Nashville, a facility serving residents of Urban Housing Solutions, the surrounding community and the greater Nashville metropolitan area. Hopkins admitted the experience opened her eyes to a whole new world of health care.
“I was a student assistant, so I was really just helping out in any possible way that I could and the people there were really, really amazing – so I hope to go back,” Hopkins said. “The clinic has been there 7+ years, so they have really established a lot of really solid relationships with the patients who come back. It was really something special, even being there a couple months, it was nice seeing recurring patients just coming in to stop by. Every day, people were just so welcoming and fun.”
Assisting at Mercury Courts forced Hopkins to reassess which direction she wanted to go in her professional life after Vanderbilt – much like how she had to reassess how to attack defenders in the SEC. This semester, she’s exploring options outside of her original goals of going to physician assistant school.
Conversations with her academic counselor, coaching staff, teammates and classmates has Hopkins thinking about a more flexible future. Attending a university like Vanderbilt gives her the confidence to know life after soccer won’t be a struggle.
“It’s always really great that being a student-athlete, especially at a school like Vanderbilt which opens the door to a lot of different possibilities,” she said. “I don’t necessarily really see it now, but hopefully once I’m in the job world, it is very reassuring to hear from former soccer players, football players – anybody that’s been through Vanderbilt’s athletic program – to see how successful those people are doing in all aspects.”
Hopkins and the Commodores (9-3, 2-2 SEC) host Missouri at 7 p.m. tonight before traveling to South Carolina at 2 p.m. Sunday.
