Taking it for the team

  UCLA Sports Information A team player, Bethany
Bogart gave up a career in college tennis for the rewards
of playing with the UCLA women’s soccer team.

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

For Bethany Bogart, it’s definitely a team thing.

As a starting defender on the UCLA women’s soccer team,
the junior San Diego native is on her way to the Final Four this
weekend in San Jose. But, for her, the best part is she won’t
be going alone.

“I love my team,” Bogart said. “All the
players are my best friends.”

But Bogart wasn’t always such a team player.

Up until the eighth grade, Bogart split her time between
competitive youth tennis tournaments and club soccer with the San
Diego Surf, one of Southern California’s elite soccer clubs.
Two sports that, in her eyes, are very different.

“Youth tennis is really individual,” Bogart said.
“You’re out there by yourself. Playing a team sport
with so many people all working together is a lot
better.”

But after she broke her pelvis and heel in a soccer game during
that season, which kept her from competing for three months,
Bogart, then 5-foot-2, just wasn’t the same on the field.

“I wasn’t scared but I wasn’t as
aggressive,” Bogart said. “I was so little then that I
shied away from the physical contact.”

So, at her parents’ urging, she made tennis her main
priority in high school. But her blood still boiled black and
white.

“I’d watch my younger brother and sister play
(soccer) and it would kill me,” Bogart said.

Then in her sophomore year, Bogart hit a growth spurt.

“Everyone, my coaches and parents, would make bets on how
tall I’d be,” Bogart laughed.

Seven inches and two years later, Bogart returned to the soccer
field and found the fire her injuries had almost put out.

“Growing and going out there and being bigger than some
girls gave me confidence,” Bogart said.

Bruin teammate Lauren Emblem, who played soccer with Bogart
since before she got injured, remembers Bethany’s return to
the field.

“When she came back, I knew that’s what she
wanted,” Emblem said. “She’s a really good
athlete and can play any sport, but she came back and became an
awesome (soccer) player.”

Bogart went on to finish high school excelling in tennis,
soccer, cross country and track. In those four sports she
accumulated 13 letters, eight all-league honors, two all-CIF
honors, three league titles, two individual titles, and four CIF
championship victories.

But when it was time to go to college, Bogart once again had to
choose to focus on a single sport.

“I was pretty much supposed to play tennis in
college,” Bogart said. “UCLA was the only school I
looked at for soccer.”

And this time, Bogart chose to stick to the field, citing the
team aspect of soccer as the main factor in her decision.

“In tennis you feel really good because you accomplish
things personally,” Bogart explained. “When you win,
you’re happy, but you can’t jump and scream because
you’re out there by yourself.”

As a Bruin, Bogart is definitely not alone.

“When we beat Clemson (to get to the Final Four), you look
around and everyone was screaming and crying we were so happy. It
means so much more than anything in tennis.

“I’d never trade this for anything,” she
added.

The Bruins’ (18-3-1) incredible run for this year’s
NCAA national championship title has been nothing but a team
effort, and Bogart has played an instrumental part.

“On the field (Bethany) is a great leader,” Emblem
said. “Her competitiveness is contagious and encourages
everybody else to be that way.”

Head coach Jill Ellis agreed.

“She’s someone we can’t not have on the
field.”

The importance Bogart places on the team, rather than the
individual, is evident even in the way she plays.

In 1999, she led the Bruins in assists (7), and this year she
already has six, tying her for third on the team, despite the fact
that she plays defense.

“I can see her doing well in individual sports because
she’s so competitive, but she enjoys being part of the
whole,” Ellis said.

So this weekend, when the NCAA title is held up for grabs,
Bogart will reach out and take it for the team.