Michael Kropff has more letters than the US Post Office.
He competed in cross-country, basketball, track and field and volleyball.
Kropff went out being named the Senior of the Year for Gilroy High School and is also the Male Athlete of the Year in recognition of his four years competing for the Mustangs.
“It meant a lot considering how much work I put in for cross country, basketball and volleyball this year,” Kropff said. “I worked so hard through out the year and the summer, it meant a lot.”
Cross-country into basketball into track and volleyball are not a natural progression for athletes. Often times cross-country leads to soccer or track; basketball leads to baseball or football leads to basketball.
For Kropff, the choice was easy because of his ties to the team through the coaches and also he saw himself just get better having the extra workout that cross country provided.
“I had a really good relationship with the Silvas for cross country,” Kropff said. “Cross country really did help with my endurance.”
He said before cross-country, he could play a full game, but he would be pretty winded by the end.
Thanks to his running regimen, he could compete for a full 32 minutes and have just as much energy as when he started.
He said there was a problem with shin splints, but he said he took care of his legs with ice and his cross-country coaches tailored his workouts as to not gas him for basketball.
“It was a struggle, but two weeks into the season, I was fine,” Kropff said. “And the Silvas did a great job watching me, making sure they didn’t’ over run me so I would be fine for basketball. … They were great coaches in that sense.”
What got him started
As a youngster, Kropff said he watched his older brothers playing a basketball video game and he would watch NBA games with his dad.
He said he idolized Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant as a kid and tried to emulate them on the court—as much as he could as an 8 or 9-year-old playing hoops.
He first started playing basketball at Solorsano Middle School.
And he fell in love with the sport. It became a big part of his life, Kropff said, and he turned it into a passion that carried him through high school.
“It stuck with me,” Kropff said. “I love the game.”
Getting called up
His sophomore season, Kropff got called up to the varsity level after having a year down at the freshman team.
Kropff said he really wanted to make varsity even if it meant he would ride the bench for a time.
But he started the first game of the season, which he said surprised him given the senior talent that was in front of him.
“I just worked my butt off in practice,” Kropff said. “There was obviously really talented guys on that team; seniors I was competing against. … It just made me proud because it showed my work
paid off.”
He said he remembers the game well. It was against Harbor and he got into foul trouble early. Kropff said that was something he had to work on that first season was making sure to keep his head and stay on
the court.
Kropff said he had to adjust his game. He saw himself as a shooter and a primary option on offense. But Gilroy had quality offensive players so he had to adjust himself to playing as more of a bruiser in the post and a passer to help get the offense rolling.
Volleyball
As he entered his senior year, Kropff said he wanted to still learn how to take his game one step further.
So he joined the boys volleyball team.
“I would say my white-boy hops,” Kropff joked when asked why he joined the team. “I always wanted to dunk and I was always right there.”
He did turn serious and said while he won jump balls, he said he could have done better in that regard and saw volleyball as a way to help him in that area of his game.
“It worked,” Kropff said.
It was a departure from track, which he had done until this year. He said he loved doing track, but wanted something new.
Learning volleyball was a challenge because of all the nuanced rules Kropff had to learn in a short period of time.
“It was crazy those first few weeks. There were so many rules I didn’t know,” Kropff said.
Kropff said he kind of wishes he had done volleyball sooner. He was named to the Second Team All Pacific Division in just his first foray into the sport. He said had he started sooner, he can only guess how much better he could have been.
Adversity
Being an athlete carries with it special challenges with time management. But it also carries great lessons
“It was a grind, but it was worth it,” Kropff said. “It was a great time. It was worth everything. Everything I worked for in the classroom, on the court, out on the course, I would say at the end of the day not only did it help me mature as an athlete, but also a person. I learned how to deal with adversity.”
Kropff said he really learned this point when he was sent down to the freshman basketball team. He said he had to learn how to be a leader there and how to learn how to make the best of a situation.
Kropff will be moving on to San Jose State in the fall where he will study business and marketing.
