Native girls take part in Australian sports tour, Local players experience international competition, new culture

WINDOW ROCK
The American Congress of International Sports sent four teams overseas to Australia last month to compete in a unique basketball tournament.

The ACIS teams played in the 2023 Nunawading Tournament in Melbourne, Australia, which included six local high school girls and Tuba City head basketball coach Kim Williams.

The six area players who made the trip to Australia are Jazmyn Ben (Coconino), Keira Jenkins (Page), Kaia Talashe (Winslow), Alaina Dugi (Tuba City), Natasha Acothley (Tuba City) and Alyssa Harris (Page).

“We took about 35 girls to Australia and six were Natives,” Williams said. “Under ACIS, this was an opportunity for these girls to play basketball while learning a new culture. They got to learn the culture of the Australian people and how they spend their time. I think they really enjoyed that. They also went sight-seeing and the animals they got to see were koalas and kangaroos.”

Jenkins said the trip to Australia helped broaden her views of the people Down Under.

“It was a great experience for me,” she said. “I loved getting to know other people and after every game we talked to the other teams. They’d ask us how it is living in America, and they asked us where we’re from and we would describe the Navajo reservation to them.

“They would tell us how their lives were different from ours to theirs,” she added. “It was a whole new experience for me. You know, the competition was really different there. It’s nothing like playing on the reservation, so it’s really different.”

Harris said she was “blessed” to have experienced the Australian culture.

“Coming from a small town of Kaibeto, it was truly a one-of-kind experience,” she said. “I was happy to represent the Navajo Nation and my impression of the people of Australia, they live very modestly. They’re clean, and they’re friendly. They were so kind and welcoming.”

Like her counterpart, Harris said the Australians expressed an interest in her background.

“I got a lot of questions about my (ethnicity),” she said. “They were just so interested in us.”

Williams concurred while adding that the Native girls received many compliments about their play.

“After each game different people would come up to them and they were surprised they were Native Americans,” she said. “They would talk about their indigenous people and compare it to us. They really enjoyed the girls and for many that was the first time they’ve seen Native Americans play basketball.”

Williams said the ACIS group was comprised of four squads. She headed one of those squads that included Acothley, Dugi and Jenkins.

“I like to coach up-tempo and full court man (defense),” she said. “We had a couple of girls from New Jersey and Kansas that struggled with full court man because they predominately played zone (defense).

“Once they got used to it, we started to click a lot better and we got some chemistry going,” she added.

Jenkins said she was comfortable playing with Acothley and Dugi.

“I’ve played with Alaina since the third grade and with Natasha, I played with her over the summer,” Jenkins said. “Coming in we all played together so for us it was just getting to know the rest of the other girls. It kind of reminded me of playing in AAU tournaments to where you show up and play with whoever.

“From there we sort of clicked once we started playing,” she said. “For me, I like to be loud and leader of the court and I brought that to the team. From there, we just played off of each other.”

The Williams-coached team went 2-4 overall during the tournament.

“They had to really up their game, but the IQ was there,” Williams said of her squad. “We were oversized, but in terms of skill level it was about the same.”

The Tuba City coach was the lone high school coach at the international tournament as the other squads were headed by college programs.

“I was the lone Native American female high school coach,” she said while noting that Wesleyan College coach Ryan Showman assisted her.

“I coached with a JUCO coach and we had the same mentality,” she said. “When he found out that we had Natives on the team he really wanted to join our team because he likes the way our kids play.”

Harris, meanwhile, played on a different team and her squad went 6-0 under Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University women’s basketball coach Michael Trujillo.

Harris said she played with girls from Florida, Texas, North Dakota and Massachusetts.

“Our coach was confident in us,” Harris said. “He didn’t worry about us having any plays, he just let us play. He let us do what we needed to do.
“He basically encouraged us to work with one another and just play basketball the way we know how,” she added.

Harris said the Australian teams they played were tall, but they countered that with their speed.

“It was crazy,” the 5-7 guard said. “I mean, none of them were shorter than me.”

Harris said the Australian team plays a different brand of basketball as they were very deliberate in what they were doing.

“Their plays are very organized,” she said of the Australians.
“At no point were they ever scrambling. They all ran set plays like colleges. None of them shot the 3, and every point that they scored they made at least eight passes.”

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