She grew up on a potato farm in Idaho, but her performance on the court reflects much more excitement than that. Senior Abbie Beutler is playing in her second year here at Utah Valley University after transferring from Snow College where she earned a laundry list of awards. Beutler has played in every game so far this season as the team’s go-to point guard and sports writer Kevin Olsen caught up with her for a Q&A.
Q. What is the biggest difference to playing basketball here versus Snow College?
A. The town. It’s just a different environment. It takes forever to get anywhere.
Q. What brought you to UVU?
A. I wanted to come to UVU because of the dynamics of the team. I met the girls on the visit and they were a lot like the girls at Snow. I just liked everyone here.
Q. Is there any significance to your jersey number 12?
A. That’s just the number they gave me. I wish there was something cool, but I really did like John Stockton growing up.
Q. The NBA lockout is claimed to close on Christmas Day. How do you feel about that?
A. So happy. I already have a Jazz game planned for my birthday party.
Q. Do you have an embarrassing basketball moment?
A. Yeah, at Snow College every time we turned the ball over we had to do five push-ups. My freshmen year I threw the ball out of bounds so I jumped down to do my push-ups and just slammed my face on the court.
Q. What are some of your personal goals that you have planned for this season?
A. My goal this year is to have fun and focus on enjoying the game. It’s my last season playing on a competitive team and I want to enjoy every moment of it. I want to focus on building relationships with people around me.
