Beyond the X: Rez Ball fuels basketball fever in Arizona's Navajo Nation

Girls thrive on the Rez

They greet the sun, spread corn pollen, and pray for strength and abundance and the courage to get through another day. At night, the stars shine so bright and appear so close, they feel they can reach out and grab a bunch and toss them back at the blackness and their dreams will come true.

They dream about winning basketball championships.

One of the best aspects of Rez Ball is that it's not sexist. Not even close.

The girls draw just as many fans as the boys, and there has surely been a lot more success. At the Division III level, there is not such a disparity in height, so the native girls flourish on their skills and shooting.

"Navajos are known to be real good sharpshooters," Winslow star sophomore Shandiin Armao said. "Either you're strong underneath or you have a perfect shot. It's really cool."

It was cool for 33 years to have Don Petranovich as head coach. He won eight state titles for Winslow and is the state's winningest coach with a 778-159 record.

He retired two years ago after starting the program in 1975. A football, baseball and assistant boys basketball coach, he was known for his hard-nosed style and he didn't take it easy on the girls, something they responded to.

"The girls play real hard," Petranovich said. "And now they can really dribble and shoot and play. You better be ready."

Winslow senor guard Mattea Begaii said there's a distinct reason the girls game is so popular. "We play more as a team," she said. "The boys like to go one-on-one."

It wasn't an easy sell at first, and certainly the girls didn't draw like the boys.

"But once Holbrook and Winslow got better and better, the crowds got bigger and bigger," Petranovich said. "I think it's great that we brought the girls out of the shadows and now they are definitely part of the show."

They were a huge part when Winslow won a state title in 1990 on a last-second shot against Snowflake before 16,200 fans in Phoenix. That was a state record for attendance, Petranovich said.

"I remember our girl was holding the ball for one shot and she waited and waited and waited," Petranovich said. "I told her that she better go but the crowd was so loud she couldn't hear me. She finally went and made it right at the buzzer. That was a great experience."

It's all been great for Begaii. She started dribbling a basketball when she was 4 years old and experienced all the best of Rez Ball. She'd love to finish it with another state title.

"I've loved the crowd yelling and screaming," she said. "It's what we all grew up experiencing. A lot of people get nervous and sure it brings some butterflies, but as soon as the ball goes up, they all go away."

Armao's dad felt some butterflies the first time he shot baskets in Winslow.

A non-native originally from Philadelphia, he worked with Navajos on the reservation to help become doctors. According to Armao, he was asked by a co-worker after work to go shoot baskets.

"Because that's what you do when you're in Winslow," she said. "He met my mom on a basketball court in town somewhere that day and that's all it took."

Now Armao is just looking for two more wins at Jobing.com Arena this weekend to erase last year's bitter state title defeat to Page.

"Our coach (Jerron Jordan) always says, ‘We don't get mad, we get even,'" Armao said. "That's what we plan to do."