Just days before the start of the new season, the Hoptown Hoppers have announced a new head coach. Team officials announced Tuesday that Andrew Hernandez had stepped down from the position before ever coaching a game due to taking on a new role with his current school, Wharton Junior College, in Wharton, Texas.
For the rapidly approaching season, the team has turned to Chris Benne to take over the team. Benne has coached with the Hoppers the last two years and was already on the staff for this season.
Benne is the Head Baseball Coach at Northwest High School in Clarksville. He attended Northwestl before graduating from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2013. That same year, he became an assistant coach at Northwest High School.
After two years as an assistant, Coach Benne moved south to Forrest School in Chapel Hill, Tennessee leading the Rockets’ baseball and football programs to DRVC Championships.
After just one season, he returned back to Clarksville to become the head baseball coach at Northwest, where he has been the head coach for the last 10 seasons.
Benne became an assistant coach for the Hoptown Hoppers under former Head Coach EJ Devarie and remained on staff through the 2024 season, finishing the season as the interim head coach.
