Diné burns up record for Lady Flames

WINDOW ROCK

They threw Naomi Hernandez a celebratory bash after she eclipsed the all-time scoring record for Valley Lutheran High School in Phoenix.

The Diné athlete, who has roots in the Chinle area, accomplished that on Feb. 19 when she blitzed Glendale Prep Academy for 30 points. Since that game, she’s added 112 markers to that total, having scored 1,547 points since her freshman season for the Lady Flames girls basketball program.

“I knew I was gonna get the 1,000 points, but I didn’t think I was gonna beat the all-time leading scorer so fast,” she said. “It’s such an honor to do that, and I’m just glad that when I leave Valley Lutheran I’m going to leave a mark that hopefully stands for a long time.”

Boys basketball player Sam Voas was the former all-time record holder as he finished his senior season with 1,397 points at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season.

The previous girls’ record belonged to Stacy Mertins and she set that mark in the late 1980s.

Valley Lutheran coach Ed Measel said Hernandez is leaving quite a legacy at the 30-year-old school. And through 17 games this season, he said his pupil has wowed a lot of coaches.

“She’s had a few 30-plus point games this year,” he said. “She’s just a fantastic ball player and ‘driven’ would probably be the best word to describe her if I were to use one word in her getting that record.”

Her rise as one Arizona’s best prep players involved the many lessons she learned from her dad, Juan Hernandez, at a young age.

Naomi remembers the time when she did dribbling and shooting exercises that got too monotonous at times.

“When I first started I thought this would be easy because it’s just dribbling,” she said. “I got tired but he wanted to make sure that I’m comfortable with the ball.”

Those ball-handling lessons entailed crossover dribbles as Naomi became adept at dribbling with both hands. The father-daughter duo then worked on her shooting, starting with layups and then shots from the perimeter.

“I just got into a motion of how to make my shots,” she said. “It just became like muscle memory to me.”

And when she reached high school, Juan encouraged his daughter to write down her goals on 4×8 index cards. She was asked to look them over every morning and every night. And on game days she had to take a third, fourth and fifth look at those cards.

“She sets goals for herself and she was able to achieve them,” he said. “She memorized them and it got stuck in her head. It gave her a better picture in what she wanted to accomplish.”

In her first year, Juan said her goal was to score 10 points per game and now her goal is to score 25 ppg for her final season.

“It really works because the most successful people achieve things by writing things down,” he said. “They achieve things by repeating it to themselves.”

Those goal-setting reminders have done wonders for Naomi this season as she was named the 2A Central Section Player of the Year last Friday.

“I nominated her and she was a unanimous vote among all the coaches,” the Valley Lutheran coach said. “Every coach in the division had no problem with her winning that award.”

By his count, Measel said his super-talented, do-it-all player is averaging 24.5 points per game with the next player in the conference putting in 17 points per clip. Additionally, Naomi has been averaging 5 assists and 8 steals per game.

“It’s pretty clear-cut that she’s the player of the year on offense and defense,” he said. “Her defense has been phenomenal this year and we’ve learned to let her explore that … If you watched some of her games to where she’s played her best defense she’ll front them and when they start to pick up the basketball she’ll get down like a cat ready to pounce. She’s had a lot of steals and that’s been fun to watch.”

As one of the Valley Lutheran’s best defenders, Naomi said her prowess on that end allows her opportunities to score.

“I do make a lot of steals and that translates to layups,” she said.

And while she’s lit up the scoreboard a number of times already, Measel said Naomi has struggled somewhat from the three-point line.

“This has probably been her weakest shooting season from the three-point line,” he said. “Usually, she shoots really well from the three-point line but for whatever reason she hasn’t gotten it going this year.”

Measel said they’ve been working on getting Naomi more reps heading into the Arizona 2A state playoffs. As the tournament’s No. 7 seed, the Flames will hosted No. 10 Phoenix Horizon Honors tonight.

“It’ll be awfully nice if we can get her (three-point) shooting going again because a lot of teams are going to try and collapse on her,” Measel said.

One of those teams did just that as the Sedona Red Rock Lady Scorpions held Naomi to only seven points in their first meeting this year as Valley Lutheran came up short 47-32.

“She’s a hard match-up for a lot of teams but Sedona has a couple real big girls that they’re able to keep in the middle,” Measel said. “We just haven’t shot well against them and if we can start to make shots against them then the big girls would have to come out and that will open up the floor for Naomi.”

And while she was able to tally 12 points in their second meeting with the Scorpions, Naomi said every time she got the ball she was doubled-team.

“I feel like their main focus was on me, for me not to score,” she said. “They always had some on me and every time I tried to drive it in they had three girls who were super-tall collapse on me.”

The Flames will have a chance to avenge those two losses late in the playoffs. Of course, that’s assuming the two teams make it as far as the state semifinals on March 19.

Measel said they’re not looking too far ahead but he does like his team’s chances of advancing deep in the playoffs.

“When we bring our ‘A’ game, we’re really tough to beat,” he said. “We’ve had our hiccups, like most teams see through the year, but when we bring our ‘A’ game we’re an awfully tough out for anybody.”

Like her coach, Naomi is hoping to get deep into the playoffs.

“Honestly, I would like to get into the championship game,” she said. “I would like us to win it all. That’s my main goal right now.”

And the more games the Flames can play, the more Naomi can add to the all-time record.

---