Sports

Becenti inducted into SCC Hall of Fame

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Nov. 28, 2011

She was made to play basketball.

As one of the most coveted players to come out of the Navajo Reservation, Ryneldi Becenti was groomed to be just that.

While growing up, she watched her parents, Ray and Eleanor, play in a lot of open tournaments with her four siblings Ryland, Ray Jr., Rayes and Ryan.

And it was those tournaments, she said, that helped carved out the person she is today.

"My mom and dad played in a lot of tournaments," Ryneldi said in an interview with the Navajo Times. "And that is how I was inspired to play basketball because I've seen them travel, I've seen them go way out there to different reservations and play at a high level.

"They were great basketball players," she added. "I wanted to follow their footsteps, so I knew that was what I wanted to do."

And through basketball, Becenti has seen the world and met a lot of people along the way.

Recently she was inducted to the 2011 Scottsdale Community College Hall of Fame - her fourth induction. She's been elected into the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame, the Arizona State University Hall of Fame and Arizona High School Sports Hall of Fame over the years.

"It's always an honor to be inducted into a hall of fame," Becenti said.

Of the four inductions, she said the SCC Hall of Fame is the most special because there is a weird, yet common connection between her distant past and present.

Starting out slow

"A while back my dad played in a tournament there at Scottsdale Community College when we were little kids," Becenti recalled. "As we got older he would always remind us that he played there every time we drove by. It's kind of weird that he played in that same gym so it was an honor when I got recruited to play for Scottsdale."

And although there were other offers including from some Division I programs, Becenti inked her letter of intent to play with the Lady Artichokes, who were headed by then-coach Newton "Bike" Medder, at the bequest of her dad.

"She was getting a lot of attention from different colleges, but my dad wanted her to start out slow," Ryneldi's older brother, Ryland said. "To top it off, my dad also knew about coach Medder and the program because (former Window Rock standout) Kim Ashley played ball at Scottsdale so the introduction was made."

Ryneldi arrived at the SCC campus in 1989, but in her early years all she did was play ball not knowing that one day she would be doing it collegiately.

"Back then we were just kids," Ryland said. "We would create our own basketball courts with our mini balls. But I think that is where she got her footwork down because we used to watch the pros play and we would recreate what they were doing on our own courts."

They re-created those same moves whenever they could. Sometimes it was before school, or during lunch hour, or after school in all kinds of weather. It was a routine that repeated itself.

"We did that seven days a week," Ryland said. "We even did that in the winter time and it was just constant basketball. Our parents gave that to us and you could say it grew on us to become better ball players."

So much that Ryneldi was good enough to make the varsity basketball team as a freshman at Window Rock High for longtime coach Jimmy Skeet. But her dad insisted that she wait her time.

"She started to separate herself from other players," Ryland said. "She had the heart and she wanted to play."

Death in the family

But during that season her mother, Eleanor, became sick and died of liver disease.

Needless to say, Ryneldi was crushed and her passion for the game had momentarily wilted away. The loss was so great that she refused to touch a basketball for weeks.

"I wanted to quit basketball, but my mom and dad had instilled in me to never cry," Ryneldi said. "I was taught to have thick skin and when my mom passed away my dad reminded me that I had to stay tough because I had a whole journey to continue."

Part of that journey included a state basketball championship her junior year in high school. And as a senior, she led the Lady Scouts to an undefeated season before losing in the first round of the state playoffs.

Nonetheless she was named Arizona's player of the year after that season.

She was then off to Scottsdale where the petite, yet athletic 5-7 guard led SCC to 44 wins.

And as a member of the Artichoke women's basketball team, Becenti had the privilege to guard Sheryl Swoopes, the three-time WNBA MVP, in a junior college game her freshmen year.

At that time, Swoopes played for South Plains College, a community college in Levelland, Texas.

"She was probably the top-notch player at the time, but I didn't know who she was," Becenti said. "My coach, Bike Medder, told me to guard her and that was a challenge."

In that game, Becenti remembers, Swoopes scored 42 points.

The following year, she played against Swoopes in a home game and this time around she held her to 24 points.

"I've talked to Sheryl and I told her that she was the one player who made me want to play better defense," Becenti said. "Even though she scored 24 points on me in that last game, at least I can say I guarded her."

The next level

And after her two years were up at SCC, Becenti left the school with many all-time records in scoring, assists and free-throw and field-goal percentages and was a two-time NJCAA All-America.

In 1994 her jersey was retired.

After dominating the junior-college league, she then went on to Arizona State University and played for then-coach Maura McHugh.

In her first year as a Lady Sun Devil, Becenti helped the team to a 20-win season and a trip to the NCAA tournament.

And by the time she was a senior, her life story was narrated in a seven-piece essay titled "A Woman of the People" by Gary Smith of Sports Illustrated.

In the piece, Smith chronicled the struggles she faced while trying "to balance the demands of major college basketball with the ancient traditions of her tribe."

"I didn't know that I was going to play college basketball," Becenti said. "When I was growing up all we would watch on TV were commercials about Marines and Navy, so I assumed that I was going to go into the service.

"At the time I wasn't thinking about college, but my dad told me that I was going to play college basketball," she said. "He knew that I could play high school ball, but he wanted me to prove to others that I was better than that."

Indeed she was as Ryneldi set her eyes on playing professional. She played a few seasons in Europe before she returned to Arizona in 1997 and made the Phoenix Mercury squad.

"Basketball has really changed my life," Becenti said. "It has taken me places and it has helped me meet a lot of new people."

More than anything, though, her involvement in basketball has inspired others.

Back to top ^