On the second floor of Cottrell Hall, behind a wall of glass, HPU freshman success coaches know Tommy Hockenjos by another name: T-Hock.
He’s their go-to volunteer when they need help in acclimating any student who feels lost. Always, Hockenjos obliges.
He’s the founder and president of the Teddy Roosevelt Club of Excellence – TRCOE for short. It’s evolved into one of HPU’s largest student clubs with at least 320 members on Facebook and at least 50 members who come regularly to TRCOE events.
Hockenjos’ initiative helped him win a coveted student award: Extraordinary Leader for the month of December.
He’s a junior from small-town Pennsylvania, and he has helped students find friendships and comfort with college. He knows why.
He’s been there.
The Genesis of a Good Idea
Three years ago, Hockenjos came to HPU from Downington, Pennsylvania, population 7,891, a town an hour or so west of Philadelphia. In Downington, Hockenjos wore No. 44.
He played fullback and tight end for the Downington East Cougars, and by his senior year, he was one of four team captains. His life had always revolved around football. When he came to college, that identity became simply a good memory.
But Hockenjos, the youngest of three boys, was never one to sit idle. He always kept busy, and when he came to HPU, he looked for an outlet.
He found it when he and a couple of his friends in York Hall drove 45 minutes west and hiked Pilot Mountain State Park. For Hockenjos, it was simply a chance to de-stress, meet people and do something fun.
“Hey, we should start doing this every weekend?” Hockenjos told his friends.
They did.
‘T-Hock, he is going places”
They first called it the Sunday Activities Club. But Hockenjos wanted something catchier, and by the end of his freshman year, he chose a name, one long name — the Teddy Roosevelt Club of Excellence.
He liked Roosevelt’s morals and big-hearted vision. Plus, Roosevelt loved the outdoors.
Next step: Make the club official. Who could help? Britt Carl, his success coach.
By the fall of Hockenjos’ sophomore year, TRCOE became an official HPU club. Since then, he and club members have hiked, camped, visited Southern cities, weeded and planted flowers on campus, collected toys for local children and volunteered at local agencies.
Like for Halloween at the Macedonia Family Resource Center, a faith-based non-profit a few miles from campus. Hockenjos came as an astronaut, and there, he met a little boy no more than 4, dressed like Woody, the badge-wearing cowboy from “Toy Story.”
“He came around for candy four times, and I knew we were making that kid’s day,” Hockenjos says today.
Indeed.
“He has just blossomed,” Carl says of Hockenjos. “When we have a student who we see is trying to find their path, we email Tommy. That’s why we call him the ‘King of Student Success.’ T-Hock, he is going places.’”
From Injuries Come Growth
Hockenjos came to HPU because of football. Or really two injuries.
When he played defensive end in eighth grade, he got hit in the right knee and collapsed on the field. He saw 13 doctors, and he later found out the cause.
He tore his anterior cruciate ligament, better known as the ACL. It’s one of the key ligaments that stabilize the knee. Doctors repaired Hockenjos’ injured knee, and he spent four months in rehabilitation with a physical therapist he saw three times a week.
Two years later, in the spring of his sophomore year in high school, Hockenjos was going through off-season tackling drills when his right knee caved. He was a month shy of his 16th birthday. When his knee gave, Hockenjos knew.
“Not again,” he told himself.
Another surgery. Another physical therapist. Another moment contemplating months of rehabilitation.
“After the second ACL tear, I kept thinking, ‘How could that have been prevented? How can I stop someone else going through the pain I went through?’’’ he says today. “I didn’t want to wish that on anybody.”
Hockenjos’ New Niche
Hockenjos wanted to come South for college, and when he visited HPU, he saw one of the jewels of the university’s health sciences program: its Human Biomechanics and Physiology Lab, the largest in the nation.
“That,” Hockenjos says, “was all I needed to see.”
Hockenjos is an exercise science major with a concentration on biomechanics. For the past two years, he has conducted research with HPU’s physical therapy professors and worked with female soccer players and football players as young as nine to as old as 18.
In May, he will present research on bone mineral density in the feet of athletes at the American College of Sports Medicine conference. He now has a new niche: the future physical therapist who wants to people recover from ACL injuries.
Like in high school, Hockenjos does keep busy. He’s a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, HPU’s business fraternity, as well as a peer mentor and a member of the Powerlifting Club, the Baseball Club, the Exercise Science Club and the Physical Therapy Club.
And of course, the Teddy Roosevelt Club of Excellence keeps him busy, too.
“Being here has helped me realize there is a whole lot more to the world,” Hockenjos says, “and I want to learn as much as I can.”