(Patty Day File photo) Liberty Hill's Kourtney Bevers (12, white uniform) fights Hondo's Luanna Lopez for the ball during a basketball game last year. Bevers does EVERYTHING on the basketball court, the softball diamond and cross country course - all she wants is success for her team and teammates and she'll do anything to help that effort.
By Merle Bertrand, Sportswriter
Kourtney Bevers has not been competing for Liberty Hill High School for a decade. But when you do the math – four years of varsity basketball, three years of varsity softball so far, and a few years of cross-country tossed in for good measure – it’s easy to understand why it seems like Jack and Karla Bevers’ eldest daughter has been a Panthers fixture forever.
“I think I recently decided basketball (is my favorite sport) just because there’s more teamwork and there’s more ways you can get into the game,” Bevers picked from her extensive athletic repertoire. “There’s just more to do on the court than on the field.”
(Abarw.com/Allison Weirich File Photo) Kourtney Bevers is a two-time district MVP softball pitcher/players for Charice Hankins' Lady Panthers.
Born in Austin, Kourtney Ren’ee Bevers has a birthday coming up on February 28. If her friends take her out to dinner, they’ll get off cheap: Bevers is a fast food fan whose favorite meal is a Big Mac. And for dessert?
“Reeses Pieces, Reeses Cups, Mini-Reeses Cups, I like em all, except for maybe the king-sized ones. The peanut butter to chocolate ratio is a little off on those.”
A cheerleader in junior high school, this multi-talented student-athlete also played volleyball and ran track before her high school career began.
Once in high school, Bevers made an immediate impact. The National Honor Society member was named Academic All-District in both basketball and softball her freshman year and was 1st Team All-District and Newcomer of the Year in basketball, 2nd Team All-District in softball. Oh, and she pitched her first perfect game that spring as well.
That was just the beginning of an awards and honors list that’s longer than this article. With annual All-District and/or Academic All-Districts awards in both sports, other basketball highlights include a District MVP award last season and 1st Team All-Region, along with TABC and TGCA 3A All-State honors each of the past two seasons. She was named to the Texas Basketball MagazineAll-State team last season.
(Merle Bertrand File Photo) The LHHS girls' cross country team poses (Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011) before finishing 4th at the Class 3A state meet held at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock. The Bevers sisters - Baylie Bevers and Kourtney Bevers (first and second from left) - enjoyed being on the same team that went to state.
Bevers was busy in the spring too, earning District softball MVP honors and named a 2nd Team All Cen-Tex Softball pitcher each of the past two seasons. She was also one of the Austin American-Statesman Top 50 Central Texas Athletes her sophomore year and was listed as the Statesman’s #7 Athlete in the State in 2010.
Finally, Bevers was a mainstay on a Lady Panthers cross-country team that finished fourth in the state last fall.
Bevers’ current focus is helping Coach Matt Kirschner’s #9-ranked (TABC Poll) Lady Panthers team sweep the district schedule and power deep into the state basketball playoffs.
“Last year, most of the seniors that are on varsity now had just gotten moved up to the varsity level and were still kind of new,” Bevers recalled. “But everybody who is on the team now has experienced what it’s like to have our season cut short and none of us want to feel that again.
“I feel like that’s going to be kind of an extra push for us to go as far as we can and also with some varsity experience under our belt, obviously we’re going to be a more experienced team to go up against.”
Bevers, who claims she was shy as a child, enjoys all kinds of music, listing Casting Crowns and Nickleback as two of her favorite bands. She likes sports and “pretty much anything that has to do with hanging out with my friends.”
Bevers has two sisters; Kasye, a 6thGrader at Liberty Hill Intermediate School, and Baylie, a freshman at LLHS with whom she’s had the good fortune to compete this year.
(Jamie Williamson File Photo) Kourtney Bevers goes hard to the basket.
“It was kind of a different experience running together (with Bailey) in the morning,” Bevers recalled of her experience this past cross-country season. “Every morning, we’re running and then we go to the meets and we’re always together.
“Now that she got moved up to JV on basketball, we’re practicing together. I mean, we don’t see a lot of each other, but it’s good to know that she’s always going to have me and I’m always going to have her.”
Bevers, who will be playing basketball and softball for the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders next fall, clearly appreciates the experiences and support she’s had at Liberty Hill.
“It always gets crazy and loud in the stands. It’s good to know that they’re there cheering you on and supporting you because it’s something that you love to do and to know that they want to come and watch you do what you love to do, it’s just…I guess that’s probably one of the most rewarding things.”
Bevers specifically thanked, “My Dad, God and my whole family. I mean they’ve supported me. My Dad has been with me every day. With softball, we started pitching since way before I can remember and it seems like every day we’re out there pitching or every day we’re out there shooting or it’s something different and he’s always out there.
“And my Mom, right there to calm him down when he gets a little bit over the top. And I would be nowhere without God. Nowhere.”
Though still undecided what she wants to study after high school, Bevers is “hoping to make an impact in other people’s lives somehow.”
As a standout student athlete at Liberty Hill High School ever since her freshman year, one would have to say that Kourtney Bevers already has.
