“She’s consistent. Everyday, every week,” Coppell coach Ryan Murphy said. “7 a.m., shots. 7 a.m., shots. 7 a.m., shots. It’s just what she does.”

Four hours was the time that Coppell sophomore guard Allyssa Potter dedicated to basketball each day during last spring’s stay-at-home COVID-19 orders. Using the time most people would have used to sleep in, Potter took advantage of the free time to practice basketball and work out.

“I would wake up early in the morning and shoot for probably two hours and then in the afternoons I would do running, biking, weightlifting for another hour, hour and a half,” Potter said.

Her father Chris Potter has a love for basketball and Allyssa has been playing the sport for most of her life. She joined her first team in second grade.

Allyssa started on the freshman basketball team, yet never played a game before quickly moving to the JV team. Due to injuries on the varsity, she got to play in a varsity game and scored 11 points – nine from three-pointers. She ended up playing varsity for the rest of the year.  

“[That] never happens,” Murphy said. “Going from that freshman athletic period to [play] JV for part of the season [and then] once we get to district play, jumping up to varsity, it’s very rare.”

After school and practice was canceled for the rest of the school year because of stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19, Allyssa decided to figure out what she wanted to do in her future.

“[Stay-at-home orders] really got me thinking about what I want to do after high school,” Allyssa said. “I decided I want to play in college so I really started getting more serious about my training.”

She continues with the routine even after school started. She has been making thousands of shots. Not just shooting thousands of shots but making them, each one going inside the hoop, according to Murphy.

“[Allyssa’s] definitely a team player,” Coppell senior guard Emma Sherrer said. “She’s our point guard, so she kind of runs everything. [She’s] definitely a leader on the court. She gets us into what we need to be doing and helps us stay organized. She’s a really hard worker [and] always stays after to shoot. She’s very persistent.”

As one of the younger players and on the shorter side at 5 feet 5 inches, opposing players may have the tendency to underestimate Allyssa. 

“It’s actually a huge motivation for me,” Allyssa said. “I have to work extra hard to be successful. I believe I make the most of it and use it to my advantage. A lot of small players give up and don’t think they can play in college but I want to prove that I can and anyone can if they work for it.”

The team went into quarantine on Nov. 7, right after its first game, causing many of its following games to be canceled. Their quarantine ended on Nov. 19, and Allyssa is taking her hard work from stay-at-home orders to now and putting it into these games.

“We’re in shutdown and all that and [Allyssa would] get up at 7 a.m. everyday, go shoot thousands of makes,” Murphy said. “She was the only player that played all 32 minutes [in the first game]; we just can’t take her off [the court] before. She’s come a long way in 12 months.”

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