AIA honor 1997 state champs Lady Cardinals

WINDOW ROCK

At the 1A State Tournament halftime nearly two weeks ago in Prescott Valley, officials took the time to honor the 1997 Lady Cardinals state champion team.

Of the original 15 team members, nine made the trip to the game between Rock Point and Fort Thomas. The nine former players stood before the crowd and were presented with flowers and had photos taken to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their state victory.

Before 1997, the Lady Cardinals made it to the finals 11 times before finally winning state. The team faced Salome High in that game, with Tamara Freddie leading the score. The St. Michael girls celebrated the win 65-41. Lady Cardinals Freddie and Kyrona Roanhorse were recruited for college basketball.

One of the team members, Geri James, helped organize the event. However, she didn’t attend the event.

James was planning to attend, but she came down with COVID. She is recovering but watched her team online from the comfort of her home. She coordinated with her former teammates and officials the whole day.

“I think it brings back a lot of good memories,” James said. “A lot of time has passed since then, and how much has stayed the same.

“I’m still in communications with a lot of girls on the team,” she said. “Some of us are related, and we have that connection as well.

“It was kind of like very nostalgic, and it was fun to be able to go back and tell some stories of what happened back then,” she added, “and to reconnect and see where we are now.”

Another teammate, Roshel Taliman, said she was surprised that it had been more than two decades.

“It kind of hit me like, ‘Wow, really, 25?’” Taliman said. “It just hasn’t dawned on me years wise, (and) it seems like a long time ago but another friend of mine on the team, we started joking like, ‘Wow, we’re only 28.’

Taliman and James said they remember their time before the championship, what their team was like as they prepared for the game.

“Throughout my time there at St. Michael, we had the opportunity to play at a number of state championship games, so I was able to experience the losses,” James said. “The championship definitely made a huge impact at that time.

“And what I think it does instill is that there are ups and downs in your life,” she said, “but if you put the effort and work in, there is a great reward in the end, and I think that’s what we experienced that year.”

Both women recognized and credited their former coach, Joey Rollins, who was a new coach at the time. Rollins led the Lady Cardinals, and he brought a fresh perspective to the team by making the training program fun and making their time together a better experience.

Rollins didn’t attend because he’s coaching a team in California, which made it to the state finals.

“It was surreal in that moment being honored,” Taliman said, “because it took me all the way back to my childhood and full circle.

Basketball in their day was just as popular as it is now. The Lady Cardinals being a Navajo team added more to its win, especially when it felt like the odds were stacked against them as the team faced veteran teams from the south.

Travida George remembers the competition back then, and it added to the thrill of their underdog win, which the team felt proud to be a Native group that won the gold.

“Most of the teams in the 1A Division 25 years ago, there weren’t many rez teams, and we had to travel four to six hours for away games to play,” George said. “They were all schools down here in the Valley, so it was kind of a big accomplishment back then.”

The women remember how winning the championship took a lot of effort, especially in school.

Sports taught them teamwork and discipline, which helped them in the classroom and later in life. Looking back at what they had accomplished fills them with pride, and they hope what they have done will inspire other girls who were watching the game nearly two weeks ago on Feb. 19.

Taliman remembers being a girl and watching her first state game, thinking it was neat when it paused at halftime to honor previous state champions. Never did she think that would be her years from now.

“I’d like our youth to continue to use sport as catalyst and (a) steppingstone to get to where you want to go,” Taliman said. “Because through sports, you remain focused on your schoolwork and academics.

“It’s a good catalyst to keep balance, and as Indigenous beings, we need to be balanced; spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially,” she added.

James thanks the school for helping the team reconnect, especially after the difficult years of the pandemic. She also thanks Rollins for being their coach and taking a chance to teach at a small school, changing the lives of his athletes.

“It’s just fun to be able to look back and see that and be able to say I was a part of that and show our appreciation to the community and school and our parents especially,” she said.

For George, sports are something that spans across generations. She knows what an impact sports can have and is now encouraging her son to go out, and she is adamantly supporting him in whatever activity he wants to play.

George’s mother, in turn, was her biggest supporter, and she remembered her that day on the court as she was being honored.

“My mom was a very committed fan of St. Michael,” George said. “She passed in October.

“Before, she always said she couldn’t wait to see the team being recognized,” she added. “So being there on the court, being recognized, I was kind of honoring my mom in a way because she was my No. 1 fan.”

---