8 athletes signs for college from Window Rock

Posted by David Smith | Jun 29, 2023 | Sports |

FORT DEFIANCE
When a high school graduate earns a scholarship to attend college or a higher learning institution, that is a success story for the student, their family and all those who assisted them with their educational growth and achievement.

This year, Window Rock High had a record-breaking number of student-athletes signing on to play collegiately. A total of eight Fighting Scouts from three different sports signed their letters of intent with their respective colleges this past school year.

According to Superintendent Shannon Goodsell, WRHS usually has a yearly average of two to three student-athletes from across all sports who receive college scholarship offers.

“This is an absolutely amazing accomplishment for any school in the state of Arizona,” Goodsell said. “What makes it even more amazing is that Window Rock is a 3A school district. This type of accomplishment is very special for a small school district.”

The eight student-athletes consisted of three seniors from the Scouts football team, three from the Lady Scouts softball team and two players from the girls’ basketball team.

Football players Taylor Begay, Ryan Calvert and Elija Kane Morgan have all signed on to play at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo.

Softball players Tishyla Allen and Delerie Martinez accepted their scholarship offers from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, while their teammate Taylor Shorty signed on at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz.

Former Lady Scouts basketball players Myabella Begay and Shiryl Yazzie are already training with their new team at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, Ariz.

Goodsell gives large credit to the student-athletes, saying this opportunity comes after putting in a lot of work at school and at home, and the scholarships will help the students to afford their education.

“I can’t stress it enough that the work that went in both on the coaching level and on the student level to get this type of an accomplishment,” Goodsell said. “This just doesn’t happen overnight, but this is building a program, working the program and sustaining the program and it produces the results that we’re having at Window Rock High School.”

Window Rock’s new athletic director, Malcolm Young, congratulated the recipients, commenting that not only are they great athletes, but great students as well.

“We wanted to have this interview so that we could show our appreciation to the families, the parents of our athletes, our student athletes, our coaches and the staff at Window Rock High School for helping them on the academic side and the administrators and just everybody involved with the success of our athletes,” Young said.

Young thanked everyone, from the custodians to the principal, who help to keep the schools running and giving student-athletes a chance to learn and grow.

In addition to being dedicated student-athletes, Young also said something that helped the students get this achievement was the “Athletic Clearing House Committee.” This committee is a group of WRHS coaches and staff who help to make sure student-athletes have everything they need to be considered eligible for a sports scholarship.

The committee was initiated back in August and some of the things they help with is ensure that student-athletes have taken their ACT exams, that they maintain a high GPA, plus any other requirements needed to be eligible to be recruited. If a potential student falls short of the requirements, their respective coach will inform them and together they can work on correcting it.

Viewing the record-breaking number as a success, Young said WRHS will continue to utilize the committee to help their athletes to get college scholarship offers. Young said they’re sharing their plans and outlines of the committee with other 3A coaches and schools as a resource to get their Navajo student-athletes a chance of receiving an athletic scholarship.

Young added that with how remote the Navajo Nation is, it is difficult to showcase local skilled students so that colleges can notice them.

He also emphasized that the main goal is to give student-athletes a chance of getting a higher education while doing what they love.

“In Window Rock, as a community, as a district at our site levels, we’re all about winning here,” Young said. “And we’re not just about winning on the court or the fields; we’re about winning in the classroom.”