Trojans’ Calvert excels on and off the court

Bethany Calvert is one of the reasons the Trojans are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The senior point guard has led the team in scoring several times this year but also leads off the court as well.

Trojans coach Bob Hopkins said he couldn’t say enough positive things about Calvert.

“I wish I had her for four years,” he said. “She is a hard worker and she does everything you ask her to do. She is a silent leader.”

In addition to being a stellar athlete, she is not that bad with the academics. Calvert is currently in the running for salutatorian this year and she has a 4.6 GPA.

“I will be going to UNR to study mechanical engineering,” she said. “I am pretty confident in that area and I am excited to be going to college. So during high school, I have had all these sports but I have been keeping on top of my academics.”

Calvert is a humble athlete and she attributes the new coach and team for their success. She said the team (11-12 overall, 4-4 Sunset League) has a new attitude and that is what Hopkins has brought to the team.

“It’s a whole new atmosphere with our team,” Calvert said. “With coach Hopkins, all he wants, win or lose, is for us to leave it all on the court. You do your best on the court. Like he doesn’t want you to think you could have done it any better. I think that is where our attitude change has come from.”

Calvert loves basketball and has been playing for 10 years of her life.

“I started playing when I was in second grade,” she said. “Basketball, that’s my thing.”

If you were to ask her last year which sport was her favorite, hands down she said it would be basketball.

“I like basketball better,” Calvert said. “But this year I liked the intensity of volleyball and I had so much fun this year.”

She said her basketball skills started to bloom when she was in eighth grade.

“I actually remember hitting a 3-pointer,” she said. “It was the first one against Faith Lutheran, who was a huge rival back then, no one ever beat them and I banked one in against them. That was really memorable and it was a turning point for me because it was then I realized how much you have to work to be good.”

She also said she has improved a lot just in shooting this year with new Trojans coach Bob Hopkins.

“He has done a lot,” Calvert said. “He kind of came in and changed a lot of things. It was one of those things where you just have to trust him because he does know what he is talking about. This year I have definitely improved a lot as a shooter.”

Calvert said she was one of the leaders on the team just because of the nature of the point guard position; she said she had to be.

But she said she wasn’t the only leader on the team.

“I am not the only one on the team,” she said. “We all lead in various ways. Not every single game you will have a great game but on our team there is always one person and that one person will always try to bring someone up.”

The senior athlete has played three sports in a year but this year she only played two, volleyball and basketball.

Calvert enjoys talking about sports and was proud of her volleyball team and how they finished and she wants to be remembered as one of the key players.

“I want people to think back to this year as a whole what our team did in volleyball,” she said. “We have done way better than past years. And in basketball we made the playoffs. I want people to say, that girl and her team started a legacy. I looked up to people like Dominique Maloy (Pahrump Valley High School Hall of Famer) and when I leave I want people to talk about me like them.”

Calvert feels that sports shaped her life.

“In the last four years, my whole four years revolved around practices,” she said. “It sounds like a cliche but it really has been a lifestyle. And it has been a part of me. I really don’t know who I would be if I didn’t have it.”

She also believes sports was a key factor in teaching her to always push the boundaries.

“You have to push yourself to keep up with your homework and academics,” Calvert said. “Sports has helped me to keep up with my studies. I have the same attitude toward my schoolwork that I apply to my sports. Sports are cool and everything but it’s the academics that will get you through life.”

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com