When Patrick Skellchock coached Eddie Hacopian at Winston Churchill High School, there were times when Eddie’s little brother Chris would tag along. It did not take long for Skellchock to realize that Chris Hacopian would be a special talent. He told me, “When Chris was in 8th grade, I thought wow, he could start on our varsity team right now”.
He also made sure to point out that it was not like Churchill was some talent drained program, Hacopian was just that good. By the time Hacopian was a freshman,
he was committed to baseball powerhouse Wake Forest and starred alongside his brother at Churchill. Skellchock and his brother who coached with him were already talking about how Chris would be a first round pick one day.
It turns out that those predictions were right on the money. Years later, Skellchock was at the draft party while Chris Hacopian got selected by his hometown Washington Nationals. Skellchock called the experience surreal, acknowledging there is a good chance he will never work with a first round pick again.
In our interview, it was clear how much admiration Skellchock had towards his star pupil. He made sure to remind me that he coached plenty of great players at Churchill, but none of them were quite like Chris. Skellchock gushed over Hacopian’s work ethic saying, “He has put more effort in than any of the other kids I have coached. I have had some hard workers, but he takes it to another level”.
The work ethic runs in the family, so this determination did not just spring out of thin air for Chris. His dad was a star at the University of Maryland and spent five years in the minor leagues. Eddie Hacopian may not have had the talent of his little brother, but he went from Churchill to community college to Maryland on the back of his hard work and baseball IQ.
As Skellchock put it, Eddie is Chris’ number one fan, and a role model for him. Playing with Eddie was a big reason why Chris decided to stay home and play at Maryland for the first two years of his career. After Eddie graduated, Chris decided he wanted to challenge himself in the SEC, the best baseball conference in America, and transferred to Texas A&M.
That desire to push himself and find the next challenge has always appealed to Chris Hacopian. He actually left Churchill for a baseball focused academy for his senior year. However, he was injured for most of his senior year, which is part of the reason he arrived on campus at Maryland.
Hacopian has had a couple injury setbacks over the years, but as Patrick Skellchock reminded me, they really were not setbacks at all. Every time he got hurt, Hacopian would come back better than ever. Skellchock theorized that this show of resilience and his ability to overcome adversity actually helped him in the draft process.
While he faced some adversity with injuries, Skellchock acknowledged that Hacopian did not face a whole lot of it at Churchill. In fact, when the pitching got better, Chris Hacopian got better. He was at his best facing guys who threw the hardest in high school. His ability to hit velocity remains absolutely elite, with Hacopian whiffing just 5% of the time against heaters.
His ability to rise to the occasion was perhaps Coach Skellchock’s favorite part about Hacopian. As he put it, Chris was “The clutchest dude I have ever coached”. That came to the forefront against Wheaton when Hacopian hit a walkoff grand slam with the Bulldogs down three with two outs in the 7th inning. Hacopian was the perfect player to have up in that spot, because as his coach said, “He has been training to be a professional since he was in middle school”.
Despite being the best player on the team for most of his life, Chris is more of a reserved character, who likes to lead by example. When Skellchock made Hacopian captain as a Sophomore, a rare honor, he told me that he would implore Chris to speak up more. At that time, Chris was a yes sir or no sir kind of guy. He would always put in the work and elevate the levels of his teammates as well.
Skellchock acknowledged that it was highly cliche, but he said Chris was the first one in and the last one out. That kind of thing gets said a lot about great players, but it is for good reason. The best are usually also the most driven, and that is certainly the case with Chris.
Even when practices were over, he would take a core group of players to his dad’s facility and put in some extra work. Chris truly made baseball, specifically Churchill baseball his life. As he got into college, Hacopian made faith a priority as well, but baseball is still his life, even if it is not the only thing in it.
While he is a respectful person who does not curse and is a man of faith, that fire still burns in Chris Hacopian’s belly. When the moment gets big, Chris Hacopian will step up, with his coach saying “Chris is going to rise to the occasion”.
He may not be the biggest or fastest player at the next level, but few will be able to outhit or outcompete Chris Hacopian. I have talked to a few coaches over the years, but the way Skellchock talked about Chris felt different. He knew how special and rare it is to have a player like Chris. As he put it, “The kid is an animal”.
Even over the phone, you could feel the immense pride Patrick Skellchock has when talking about Chris. At the end of our interview, Skellchock just talked about how happy he was for Chris and his family. However, when I asked him what Nats fans should expect from Chris, he perked up and said “He’s going to be clutch, I’ll tell you that”.
