Fresno State Athletics
Making Music
2/4/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 4, 2000
By Abby Wigstrom, Fresno State Media Relations
Notes on sheets of music are no different than the X's and O's on a basketball coach's playbook. Porsha Boyd can tell you that. She can offer a heavy list of similarities between the art of music and the game of basketball including team work, long hours of practice, fatigue and busted lips- one from playing the trumpet for hours on end- and the other from a sharp elbow in the mouth.
Boyd, a junior from Carson City, Calif. is the sixth or seventh woman off the bench for the Bulldogs hitting threes and dishing to teammates under the basket. Coming off the bench, head coach Britt King said she depends on Boyd to hit the three and "give the team an extra kick." Not only that, Boyd is a valuable veteran on a team filled with newcomers that King said needs Boyd's maturity and experience.
Playing Bulldog basketball is only one of Boyd's natural gifts however. Her finger tips not only nail baskets from thirty feet out, but they also dance across the cool surface of trumpet keys.
"I can basically play any brass instrument," Boyd said. "But the trumpet is my main instrument."
An accomplished musician found on the Covenant Trio gospel albums released from the Boyd family production company Patriarch Music, Boyd said she can pick up any brass instrument and play it without instruction. On top of that, she can also play basketball and the national anthem in one showing.
"When I was in high school I was in the band and I played the Star Spangled Banner before my home games then I would hop out of the bleachers and start the game," Boyd said. "Sometimes we would come in early from halftime and I'd play with the band again."
Playing that dual role with music and basketball ruling her life has been Boyd's regiment ever since she can remember. Both basketball and music, she said, just came naturally.
"I've been brought up in music. Everyone in my family is a musician and I just picked it up since I was around it. My mom sings, my aunt sings and basically my father plays any instrument. I think I picked it up from him," Boyd said.
Basketball is the same story, Body said, just without the family background.
"My father doesn't play, none of my family plays and I was never taught to play I just started playing one day. I was on my first team when I was five and it just came naturally," Boyd said.
Planning to minor in music and already claiming credits playing the trumpet, saxophone or trombone on all the Trio Covenant gospel albums Patriarch Music has produced, Boyd said she will hang onto whichever talent will take her the farthest.
"I have love for both of them and basketball happens to be taking me the farthest right now. When it happens to not be there in the future I will definitely go to music," Boyd said.
When the time does come for Boyd to retire her basketball jersey and make music her life she plans to someday take over her fathers production company and continue the Boyd tradition.
"It's like a family business," Boyd said. "When my father decides to get out of it I will take over Patriarch Music and put out the albums."
Boyd said her level of success and natural ability in music has helped her immensely in basketball, but it has also raised her self-expectations on the court to a level of almost unattainable perfection.
"I am successful in music and it just come to me. I'm expecting that to happen in basketball too. In high school I was that successful in basketball, but here I am still learning and I think that I've made a lot of improvements," Boyd said.
Admitting that she is one of the slower developers of her freshman class on the team, Boyd said that she is continually learning about the game of basketball and herself as a person.
"I know that I have the capability to bring more to the team and I'm learning that I can't be lazy and that I am really hard on myself," Boyd said. "Confidence is a big key with me but I'm playing every game and I'm contributing to the game and the team this year."
Whether Boyd is contributing on the Bulldog basketball team making music on the court or whether she is making music in the recording studio, she said will always be utilizing at least one, if not both of her naturally born talents.
"I can't live without music and I love basketball. I have to have one of them in my life in order to be happy," Boyd said.
