MHS Athletic Trainer Jeff Hopp Inducted into the GATA Hall of Fame

MARIETTA, Ga – Marietta High School athletic trainer Jeff Hopp has been inducted into the Georgia Athletic Trainers' Association (GATA) Hall of Fame. His more than three-decade career has taken him from NFL sidelines to Olympic venues to athletic training rooms across Georgia.

At Marietta High, Hopp does more than care for student-athletes. He runs the student athletic training aide program, coordinates district safety initiatives, and leads students on international trips.

His influence extends well beyond Marietta. Hopp helped develop the Georgia High School Association's heat acclimatization guidelines and baseball pitch count regulations, was a founding member of the Georgia Concussion Coalition, and played a key role in the passage of the Georgia Return to Play Act in 2013. In 2024, Governor Brian Kemp appointed him to the Georgia Board of Athletic Trainers.

He received the NATA Athletic Trainer Service Award in 2016, was named GATA's Jerry Rhea Athletic Trainer of the Year in 2020, and earned the 2021-22 MCS Superintendent's Award.

Before joining the Blue Devils, Hopp served as an assistant athletic trainer with the Minnesota Vikings in 1994, then headed overseas as Head Athletic Trainer for the Barcelona Dragons of NFL Europe from 1995 to 1997. He was part of the medical staff for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta and served as medical coordinator for the 2007 U.S. National Paralympic Track and Field Championships. Hopp also spent almost 7 years providing outreach athletic training coverage to several Cobb and Cherokee county schools for Resurgens Orthopedics.

A graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato (BS – Athletic Training), Hopp is certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association Board of Certification and is a nationally registered EMT licensed to practice in Georgia.

Hopp will be recognized at the GATA Annual Meeting's Awards & Honors Luncheon, held June 6 on the University of Georgia campus.