Hobgood's father, Rick, bought him a glove at age eight, and he began spending his days throwing a baseball against the slump block front of his Glendale, Arizona home.

At the urging of coaches, he moved over to Little League Baseball at age 11, but soon left to play travel ball after an opposing team refused to face the hard-throwing Hobgood.

"country strong" freshman, Hobgood played center and power forward in basketball, and was heavily recruited by the football coaches who saw him earning a future college scholarship as an offensive lineman.

The heavy weightlifting workouts required of linemen were not conducive to pitching, and Hobgood opted to only play one year before giving up football to remain a pitcher.

He was also a baseball and football teammate of former Stanford University running back and former Jacksonville Jaguars tailback, Toby Gerhart.

Hobgood beat former Orange Lutheran High School senior and current (as of 2025) New York Yankees' star pitcher Gerrit Cole in a CIF Semi-Final playoff game, in which Cole was recorded by multiple sources hitting 99-101 mph and Hobgood 95-97 mph on the radar.

Along with a 95 mph fastball was a quick bat and powerful swing that produced a national-best 21 home runs to go along with a .475 average and 55 RBI.

[5] The only loss during the two-year period came in the 2009 CIF Southern Section Division I playoff game against former Mater Dei standout Cory Hahn.

He signed his first professional contract on Saturday, June 27, 2009, and began his career with the Bluefield Orioles of the Appalachian League the following day.

[13] In 2016, Hobgood signed to play with the Joliet Slammers, a member of the Independent Frontier League, but was placed on the suspended list in April 2016 and never appeared in a game for the team.