A year following our Beyond the X feature on basketball in the Navajo Nation, we look at one of the players and programs currently striving on the reservation, Chinle senior guard Kevin Yazzie and his teammates. Kevin Yazzie has big basketball dreams. Not to make it to the NBA kind of dreams. But aspirations of earning a college degree. Hopes for leaving his small, but supportive town. At least for a while.
Kevin Yazzie, Chinle
Courtesy photo
After four years starting on the
Chinle (Ariz.) basketball team, Yazzie is still dreaming. On Wednesday, he hopes for a trip to Phoenix and an Arizona Division III Final 4 appearance.
The Wildcats (26-5) play
Cortez (Phoenix) (23-3) in Prescott in a regional final at 6 p.m.
The last time Chinle — called the "Mecca of basketball" in last year's
MaxPreps Beyond the X feature — made the Final 4 was in 2009 when the Wildcats finished 26-5 and lost to Estrella Foothills at jobing.com Arena in Phoenix.
The following year, Chinle went 28-4 but since then had fallen on hard times with records of 7-11, 15-12 and 19-6 last year under Steve Troglia.
See 2014 Arizona Division III playoff bracketThe Wildcats' season ended abruptly last year 74-73 to Fountain Hills on a buzzer-beater in a D3 second-round game after a first-round bye.
Yazzie, a 5-foot-11 senior point guard who is averaging better than 20 points per game, said that Fountain Hills game has stuck with him for an entire year.
Charles Gover, first-year Chinle coach.
Screen shot
"Seeing the seniors on that team break down – it was tough," Yazzie said. "Now that I'm a senior, I'm doing my best it doesn't happen to me."
Led by a trio of seniors — Yazzie, transfer
Wyatt Tuni (6-2) and
Ty Francisco (6-1) — the Wildcats are more balanced than last year and have more firepower.
The team is still short on height — no one is taller than 6-2 — but long on shooting skills, defensive and ball movement.
"We're a little more balanced," Yazzie said. "We really get along and love hanging out as a team. A lot of us having been playing for a long time."
That experienced showed in an 86-74 win over Tuba City in the sectional final at Chinle, before more than 6,000 fans. The Wildcats had lost to Tuba City 2-of-3 times earlier in the year.
Led by first-year coach Charles Gover, they followed that with an 84-72 win over Alchesay in the regional semifinals after a first-round bye. Yazzie had 17 in that game.
See "Rez Ball" Beyond the X feature from 2013
Steve Troglia, former Chinle coach.
Screen shot
No matter what happens tonight or if the Wildcats advance, Yazzie hopes to play in college. Basketball is a big part of life on the Indian reservation when Chinle is located.
Chinle's Wildcats' Den gymnasium is state-of-the-art and holds upwards of 8,000 fans. Young players are treated like rock stars. But this isn't the end-all, said Yazzie, a 3.5 student.
"I want to use basketball as something positive to get me a good education," he said. "It's crazy here the level of basketball and how big it is."
He told us last season he wants to take a similar path of his older sister Denetria who played at Western Texas College in Snyder.
"I think some kids at school don't think outside of the reservation. For me, that's a mistake. I want to make a name for myself and get an education. I love playing in high school and in front of all these people who come out and watch, but I want more."
