With a chance to get the best seat in the Tracy High stadium for a Friday night football game, Bill Hopman was glad to fill in for a night as the game’s announcer.

He didn’t realize at the time that he had just taken on a job that would put him in the announcer’s booth for all of the Bulldogs’ home games for the next 25 years.

This year, starting with Friday’s Tracy-Manteca game, Hopman has stepped down from that role. It will be the first season that he’s not the voice on the public address system at Tracy High’s Wayne Schneider Stadium.

“Twenty-five years is my limit,” Hopman said. “I’ve been through it with Wayne Schneider and all of his exciting games.”

Hopman said it’s a decision that he made as he takes tentative steps toward retirement. This is his 32nd year with the Tracy Unified School District, starting as a teacher at Central School. He also taught at Poet Christian and Hirsch schools before he retired seven years ago.

Right away, the district convinced him to come back part-time as TUSD’s character education coordinator, and he also tracks high school students’ community service hours.

He now considers himself semi-retired, and this year he and his wife, Debbi, scheduled a series of trips. When the football schedule came out, he saw that he would miss three of the Bulldogs’ five home games.

“I’ve had my 25 years on the 50-yard line and enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. “It wasn’t fair for me to keep doing it.”

It was always a volunteer job, though Hopman once got a check from then-coach Manual Costa. He donated the money back to the school’s athletics department and continued to do the job as a volunteer.

Hopman added that he won’t disappear from games, including Friday’s grudge match against Manteca. He is an active member of Tracy Breakfast Lions, which grills hot dogs and hamburgers during the games and runs the snack bar.

Taking over as announcer this year is water polo coach Keith Britt, who also coaches basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. But Britt can’t say for sure if he will stay in that role as long as Hopman has.

“If I’m good at it like Bill was, I’ll continue to do it,” Britt said.

• Contact Bob Brownne at 830-4227 or brownne@tracypress.com.