O-line assembly line at Coopersville? Central Michigan commit Hunter Hankamp next man up

BY SCOTT DECAMP

For Michigan Sports Radio

COOPERSVILLE – The slogan on Coopersville Area Public Schools’ website reads: “One Community. One Campus. Endless Opportunity.”

Coopersville football players, particularly offensive linemen of late, have landed some big opportunities on college campuses.

Coopersville senior Hunter Hankamp is in a line of three straight Broncos linemen to take their large frames to the Division I level.

Gabe VanSickle, a 2024 Coopersville alumnus, is a 6-foot-5, 320-pound junior starting right guard for Ohio State. JJ Hirdes, a 2025 Coopersville grad, is a 6-6, 290-pound sophomore tackle at Illinois.

Hankamp, a 6-4, 260-pound two-way lineman for Coopersville, is committed to continue his football career at Central Michigan.

“If there’s one thing to know about Coopersville, it’s that being an offensive lineman is cool,” Coopersville coach Ed Kaman told MLive in a 2026 season preview story. “At some places, it might be overshadowed, but here, it’s a big deal and we try to take care of our big guys. We do a lot of really good things to try to make things good for them and take care of them, and Champ (Kelly, sophomore quarterback) kind of does the same thing.

“In the offseason, he had the guys over for dinner every Monday night, so he knows how important those guys are in keeping him upright. He definitely does a lot to keep those big guys happy, and all those linemen are a key part of what we’re doing.”

At 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the River Cities Alliance, Coopersville is off to its best start since 2002, when the Broncos went 9-0 in the regular season and won a couple of playoff games before finishing 11-1.

Hankamp is a big reason for that, anchoring the offensive line from his left tackle position for a unit averaging 31.8 points per game and filling a big role defensively as a run-stopping, pass-rushing defensive end.

The Broncos are averaging 6.5 yards per carry in the running game, thanks in part to the work of Hankamp, who also helps keep Kelly clean at the QB spot where he’s gone 69-of-110 passing for 889 yards with 14 touchdowns and just one interception.

Defensively, Hankamp has 14 tackles and two sacks.

“He’s a big part on offense and defense,” Coopersville junior playmaker Wyatt Kloosterhouse said. “It’s really nice to run behind him – big holes. It’s really awesome.”

Hankamp, a three-year starter, takes great pride in carrying on the unique tradition of Coopersville offensive linemen getting the opportunity to play on the big stage in college. 

It’s a rarity for a school the size of Coopersville – enrollment of 865, competing in Division 3 in MHSAA football – to produce this many Division I O-line prospects in such a short span.

Hankamp was a “Fifth Quarter” player his freshman year during VanSickle’s senior season with Coopersville in 2023, so his contact with VanSickle was more limited, but he did fill his massive shoes starting with the 2024 campaign.

“I’d say I have a lot of pride in (carrying on Coopersville O-line tradition),” Hankamp said recently for this Michigan Sports Radio story. “I really didn’t talk to Gabe a ton, but with JJ, he always showed me a bunch a little, different tips and tricks like footwork and where to put your hands and stuff like that.”

The 18-year-old son of Josh and Ashley Hankamp with a 3.88 GPA seems to carry himself with more of a mild-mannered or even-keel disposition.

That’s not the case for Hunter Hankamp on the football field.

“He replaced Gabe at left tackle and from the opening snap he played as a sophomore, he was a kid we thought physically had the right frame and all those things, but we’re like, ‘Is he going to be physical enough? Is he going to have the mentality to be able to attack?’ We knew he had the physical traits,” Kaman said. 

“And from the get-go, he was just super physical, played aggressive on his blocking and just the way he came off the football. And that’s one thing we found over the years that these college coaches really like to see is the motor. They want to see (players) finishing blocks. They want to see kids playing on the back side of the play, their effort, those kinds of things. They don’t just want to see a highlight. They want to see a whole game.”

Hankamp’s list of college offers, according to 247Sports, included Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Princeton – the latter three being from the Ivy League, prestigious academic institutions. 

In addition to the college opportunities presented to Coopersville in recent seasons, and the exposure for the Broncos program that comes with them, the experience helps familiarize coaches, players, and families with the recruiting world and that process.

“We hadn’t had a lot of those types of kids in our program until (VanSickle), so I think that’s been a huge thing for not only me to learn about what that’s like to have those coaches come into our school and kind of put us on the map,” Kaman said.

The humble Hankamp attributes his success to Coopersville’s coaches and appreciates his teammates. He’s trying to follow the examples set by VanSickle and Hirdes.

The Broncos roster is on the younger side with only eight seniors in the 50-player group. As many as nine sophomores have started in a given game this season, but several of the team’s young players have logged their share of varsity snaps.

The squad looks to Hankamp for his quiet leadership. He said team chemistry is strong.

“We’re all really close together,” Hankamp said. “We hang out outside of practice. All the younger guys hang out with the older guys, older guys hang out with the younger guys.

“(Coming through the program) I got to see all the older guys connect with each other and as I got older, I got to see older guys starting to connect with the younger guys and working up the ladder.”

Featured photo at the top: Coopersville senior Hunter Hankamp does drill work during practice Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, at Coopersville High School. (Photo | Scott DeCamp)

 

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