Aztec girls basketball team aiming for championship, community revival
Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi | Navajo Times Aztec High School senior guard (2) Shayna Tsosie squares up to shoot the ball during the Aztec girl’s basketball tournament held last weekend. Tsosie is one of two Navajo players leading the way for the 14-4 Lady Tigers.
Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi | Navajo Times
Aztec High School senior guard (2) Shayna Tsosie squares up to shoot the ball during the Aztec girl’s basketball tournament held last weekend. Tsosie is one of two Navajo players leading the way for the 14-4 Lady Tigers.
AZTEC
Most of the awards that decorate the glass cases at Aztec High School’s gymnasium have something to do with football.
The Tigers are best known for being able to push a pigskin ball down a football field but in the last year or so, they’ve had to make room for a new group of athletes that the school just wasn’t used to.
Over the last several years, the Aztec High School girls’ basketball team has emerged from the bottom of the local basketball barrel and into the spotlight.
Their newfound success is something Aztec junior Kairai George isn’t used to.
“It was all about football,” she said. “It feels good to actually be recognized, to actually be asked questions, to have everyone say ‘yeah you guys, you’re my hero, you guys are really good, you guys are going to be good next year, you guys are going to go to state.’ People actually come to watch our games more; there was hardly anyone my freshman year. I think it’s grown a lot since then.”
That’s because they Lady Tigers have grown a lot too.
They went from being a team that hardly ever saw the likes of the University of New Mexico’s Wise Pies Arena, better known as The Pit, to being a team that gets closer and closer to it every year.
Last year, for the first time in almost 10 years, the team qualified for the state tournament but lost in the first round. It was the turning point that third-year head coach Robert McCaskill said Navajo players Shayna Tsosie and George had a lot to do with.
“They learned how to play strong defense and had a high basketball IQ,” he said. “We’re in a place that doesn’t know anything about basketball. They don’t play basketball a lot out here, so those two girls I rely on tremendously to teach all the girls the little things about basketball.”
The two brought their experience in rez ball and mixed it in with McCaskill’s philosophy that made a recipe for success.
The Lady Tigers won their only state basketball title in 2007 and came in runner-up in 2006.
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