Cory Calvert knew his old basketball pals were setting the bar high while he was away. Digital reminders landed regularly in his inbox the past two years.
“When I was on my mission, my dad was sending me e-mails with box scores from Derrick White and Josh Adams and some of my other buddies,” Calvert said. “It’s really cool to see them playing well at such a high level. Obviously, they all have a least another year left, so I’m expecting big things from them.”
Calvert, a former Chaparral High School star and The Denver Post’s 2012 Class 5A basketball player of the year, was off the court the past two years while White (a former Legend standout) was rewriting the record book at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and Adams (Calvert’s Chaparral teammate) was helping Wyoming advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Calvert played his freshman season at BYU before embarking on a two-year Mormon mission in the spring of 2013, a spiritual journey he called “probably the best experience of my life.” Calvert returned at the end of April and quickly jetted to Provo, Utah, to work on his comeback with the Cougars. The rust took a little bit of time to shake off.
“The first two weeks we had Cory, you could tell that he was very frustrated,” said BYU assistant coach Quincy Lewis. “In his mind you could see he was saying, ‘Am I ever going to be able to get my game back?’ But you can see week by week that he is taking major steps to get back where he was.”
Of course, the BYU coaching staff is used to reacclimating missionaries, whose religious obligations those two years afford little to no time for conditioning or improving their skills as athletes. When Calvert returned to Provo, his lifting consisted mostly of using his own body weight as he slowly worked his way into shape. Basketball was limited to individual workouts with coaches.
“We give them about six to eight weeks,” Lewis said, “before we allow them to be in competitive games — three-on-three, five-on-five, anything like that — just to help them with their transition back into basketball.”
Calvert recently was cleared to play in those competitive games, and Lewis said daily progress has been easy to see in the 6-foot-3 guard.
Adams, whose dramatic, buzzer-beating tip-in off Calvert’s missed shot helped Chaparral win the 5A state championship game in 2012, has little doubt his close friend and former teammate will be a key cog for the Cougars by the time they start the 2015-16 season in November.
“He’s determined,” Adams, the MVP of the Mountain West Tournament last season, said of Calvert. “He’s a very intense, competitive guy, so he’s not going to let anybody tell him he’s not going to fit in somewhere. He’s going to make it happen. That’s the kind of kid Cory is. Nothing is going to be a setback that’s too big for him to overcome.”
Calvert, Adams and White, who signed with the University of Colorado in April after an electrifying Division II career, all grew up as youth rivals in Parker — and they soon grew to be close friends. Calvert and Adams began training in seventh grade under skills guru Marcus Mason, a former college assistant who runs a basketball development academy in Parker.
“My game wouldn’t have become what it was if it wasn’t for Marcus and the things he’s taught me,” White said in March, a statement echoed by Calvert.
Their confidence grew as the skills improved, but it was their competitive fire that compelled Calvert, White and Adams to push one another. And though they have taken different paths to a major basketball stage, it’s one they never doubted they would reach.
“I know coming from Colorado, it may have been a surprise to a lot of people,” Adams said of the group’s rise in the college ranks. “But we expected this from ourselves and went out and got it.”
Adams was the heart and soul of the Wyoming team that made it to the NCAA Tournament and enters his senior season as the Cowboys’ unquestioned leader. White will redshirt the next season in Boulder before playing his last season of eligibility with CU beginning in 2016, with an eye on a professional career to follow.
Calvert, meanwhile, has three years to play for BYU. Plenty of time for him to meet the high bar set by his pals from the 2012 class.
“I’m excited to be a part of it,” Calvert said. “I couldn’t be happier for Josh and Derrick to see their hard work pay off. Hopefully I can do my thing as well.”
Nick Kosmider: 303-954-1516, nkosmider@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nickkosmider
