Looking at Calaveras High standout Matt Harvey’s burly 6-foot-1 inch, 235-pound frame, one would not think it would take much to unleash the inner beast.

However, Harvey says it was being able to tap into his mean streak this year to kickoff football season that helped him earn Mother Lode League Co-Lineman of the Year, before parlaying his excellence more recently to Calaveras High Male Student-Athlete of the Year.

“The first few years, I was timid and worried more just about the guy in front of me,” Harvey said the beginning of his high school football career. “This year I relaxed, got meaner and let loose. I got to the point where I didn’t just want to block you, I wanted to drive you into the ground.”

Besides football, Harvey put together an impressive résumé, as the starting heavyweight on the wrestling team, and an all-league baseball player.

Despite all the accolades and busy schedule, Calaveras head football coach Roger Canepa said that Harvey’s upbringing has helped him stay an all-around good kid.

“He’s not stuck up at all, he’s just a good, hard working, down to earth kid,” Canepa said. “Now-a-days you get these kids that are real uppity up, but not Matt. He was raised to be a hard-nosed kid when it comes to work.”

And for Canepa, Harvey did his share of work this year. He was focused on by many opponents as the key lineman to stop, and still managed to record 31 tackles and two sacks this year.

Harvey had his best performance on the football field in week two against Patterson High, the Trans Valley League second place finisher. In that game, he recorded a personal season best six tackles, with three solo and three tackle assists.

“He runs sideline to sideline really good for a lineman, and has very good feet for a big guy,” Canepa said. “That helped him do a good job on handling double teams, because he saw them all the time. He helped us get a good inside pass rush, and opened up holes for our linebackers.”

Starting three years on both sides of the ball, this year Harvey also provided protection for a 10-1 Redskins squad that topped the MLL in scoring with 307 points. Calaveras posted a 5-0 league record this year and won their first outright MLL title since 2002.

“When you’re winning, you feel the pressure to keep it up and I loved that,” Harvey said. “It’s great, because you know you are going to have to work for everything and teams aren’t going to lay down for you.”

In the winter, Harvey wrestled in the 275-pound, or heavyweight, division and highlighted his season by defeating MLL champion Jose Cañez from Bret Harte 3-0 in the team’s final league duel match of the year.

“Wrestling was pretty fun because it’s just you and another guy,” Harvey said. “There is one winner and one loser.”

Harvey saved the best season of all for last, as he was a part of the Calaveras baseball team that advanced to the Sac-Joaquin Section Semifinals before losing to eventual section champions Pioneer of Woodland.

Harvey was one of the Redskins’ best hitters on a team that went 11-5-1 overall and 7-3 in league, good enough for second place in the MLL. He batted in the clean up spot this season, hitting .436 during the regular season. Harvey also chipped in two home runs and 19 RBI.

“Matt has had a tendency to get off on his front foot a little bit and this year we tried to get him to stay back more,” Calaveras baseball coach Mike Koepp said. “When he stays back on his back foot and drives the ball to right center field, he is a very tough out.”

Koepp also offered that Harvey’s look at the plate was enough to help his hitting.

“We knew we had to have a big presence this year and Matt gave that to us, an imposing figure,” Koepp said. “He was intimidating to look at, let alone pitch to him.”

That intimidation must have carried over to the pitchers mound as well, since Harvey was also one of the Redskins’ top pitchers. He compiled a 4-1 overall record this year, and vaulted Calaveras into the playoffs when he beat rival Bret Harte 11-9 on May 5. In that game, he gave up one earned run and struck out eight batters in seven innings of work. He even helped his own cause by going 3 for 3 from the plate.

With all the killer instincts and intimidation on the field aside, Koepp says Harvey was a really laid-back kind of guy.

“You think he’d be a big bully because he looks like it, but he’s not,” Koepp said. “He got joked with more than anyone else on the team and most of the jokes were directed towards him. He’s such a good fun-loving guy, they just rolled right off his back.”

Calaveras senior Taylor Breitzman played football and baseball with Harvey, and concurred that being a teammate of his has made sports a lot of fun.

“He is such a fun guy and has done some pretty crazy stuff,” Breitzman said. “I remember one year back in Pop Warner (football) he shaved his number in the back of his head.”

Perhaps one of the reasons why he is so easy going off the field is because Harvey knows what to value in life, having survived cardiac arrest suffered during the summer after his junior year. While watching golf on television at his home in Valley Springs, he suffered from Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and his heart stopped beating. Luckily, his grandfather Junior Harvey was there and performed chest compression before the ambulance arrived and sustained the younger Harvey. He underwent treatment for two and a half weeks, before making a recovery and competing his senior year.

Being unconscious for much of the ordeal, Harvey says a lack of recollection helped him bounce back mentally, though it has left quite an impression on him.

“I haven’t really worried about playing sports after it all happened, because I don’t remember it,” Harvey said of his health scare. “It’s kind of like it never really happened, though I still haven’t watched a golf match since then.”

For Harvey now, all eyes are instead focused on the future, as he gets ready to attend Sacramento City College to play football for coach Mike Clemons. He plans on studying administration of justice, and is excited about what the school has to offer.

“I like that it is not too big of a campus and they have the courses I’m looking for,” Harvey said of his new school. “They also provide help for their athletes.”

Reflecting back on his high school career, Harvey is quick to say that the personality that has made him such a good athlete comes from a person close to him.

“I think my determination is what makes me a good athlete, and that comes from my dad,” Harvey said. “My dad always tells me I could be in an argument with a wall and still try to win.”