Contrary to popular belief, junior Justin Schoppe (pronounced ‘shop-ee’)is not a helicopter. Nor is he a lobster, a shopping cart, or a transformer, although the dude is very handy with a pickup truck. No, Justin is an Ames High student like you and I. But he comes equipped with enough nicknames to keep things interesting.

“Oh there are so many,” he says. “‘Schopptimus Prime’ is one of my favorites, but ‘Schop Lobster’ is okay. Heli-Schoppter is my favorite one.”

For Schoppeloffagus, baseball is much more than a chance to earn awesome nicknames. Beginning in elementary school and continuing over the years, Justin has been playing ball for 10 years, devoting days and days of his summers to the sport that he loves. Last winter, he spent 60 hours a month working indoors on his pitching and batting, and this year his training is already underway.

In addition to baseball, Schoppe plays football, throws on the track team, and is a member of both the band and the orchestra. He also works for the school during the summer, helping to check-in and inspect laptops after students have turned them in at the end of the school year.

After graduating high school, Schoppe plans on going to “Wartburg or some sort of engineering college that has a good baseball program.” Schoppe has been attending clinics with the Wartburg baseball program for several years and knows that one day he could be coaching similar clinics.

Until then, Schoppe will be focused on his Ames High studies, weathering a class load that includes heavyweights Trigonometry and AP Euro. During the interview, he went off on a bit of a tangent concerning the former.

“Who wants to memorize that one equals sine squared plus cosine squared, or that sine of two theta equals two sine cosine?

If not hitting the pages or the cages, Schoppe can sometimes be found at home playing “League of Legends,” or with friends, trying to get the perfect snipe in “Halo.”

The WEB is now accepting submissions to add to Schoppe’s resume of nicknames, but if they aren’t better than “Schopernicus,” “Schopsticks,” or the future title of his crime novel, “Schop lifting,” please refrain from submitting. Justin Schoppe is possibly Ames High’s nicest person, and he only deserves the best.