NTU women’s team excited about tonight’s season opener

WINDOW ROCK – As a first-year program, the Navajo Technical University women’s basketball team is looking to establish a foundation.

The Lady Skyhawks will open their inaugural season tonight at the Chinle High Wildcat Den at 5 p.m. against Eastern Arizona College. The men’s team will follow with their game at 7 p.m.

“We’re trying to field a competitive team,” NTU women’s coach Aanor Louis said. “We want to be competitive. Every team we play against will have established programs and we’re just getting started.”

Louis, who was hired on Oct. 2, said the team’s “measure of success” is going to be determined by a number of factors.

“We want to build our foundation on attitude, character and effort,” he said. “As long as we build on that all the other things will eventually come.”

With it being a brand-new program, Louis said NTU is looking to add more team to its schedule. As of last Friday, the Lady Skyhawks have 10 scheduled games.

“Every game that we have is because of the men’s coach,” Louis said of second year NTU men’s coach Rob Floco. “He set up all of our games and we’re following his team to some of their games.

“We’re just trying to get through this first year,” he added. “We’re trying to create a foundation and we want to focus on getting into a conference and setting up a schedule for our own program.”

“It’s just groundbreaking on how coach Floco help get us our games,” NTU guard Sarah Dennison said. “He’s helping us in that way. It’s nice to have college athletics on the reservation, so I’m really excited about our season.”

Dennison is one of 11 players enlisted on the squad. The Miyamura alumnus is one of two players that have college hoops experience with McKleigh Begay, a Gallup High graduate, being the other.

“Sarah’s kind of the motivator on our team,” Louis said. “She’s bringing everybody together. She’s pretty much a leader on the team and McKleigh also fits under that category too.”

Begaye played one semester at Dawson Community College in Montana and one semester at Colorado Northwestern Community College.

Begaye is listed at 5-8 and she said the team has gotten some scouting reports on Eastern Arizona College that finished 29-1 overall last year behind some veteran players such as 6-4 post Gracie Sorensen and guard Vitoria Santana.

“Coach has given us plays that they do, and the defense that they do,” she said. “Me and another girl (Jazlin Abe) is going to be playing ‘bully ball’ with their tall post, Sorensen. Basically, we’re just going to play pretty aggressive against her.”

Abe, a 2020 graduate of Crownpoint High, said she’s looking forward to tonight’s game.

“We got our hands full, but I think it’s exciting,” Abe said. “This is an amazing thing for NTU because they’ve never had a women’s program before. I’m honored to be a part of this team and to be a part of this experience.”

Begaye is also looking forward to playing in tonight’s season opener and she’s curious to see how her teammates respond.

“I’m excited to see what comes from these girls,” she said. “I know what this game is going to entail. I know it’s going to be a lot more aggressive that what they’re anticipating, so I’m excited to see what my teammates are going to do.”

Dennison, who competed at Chandler Gilbert Community College and Grays Harbor College in the state of Washington, said she’s very familiar of the Eastern Arizona College team.

“I’ve already played them when I was at Chandler Gilbert,” Dennison said of EAC. “I know they’re a well-established team and they’ve been around for a very long time. Some of my friends actually came from there.”

Regardless of the outcome, the NTU women’s coach said they’re looking to elevate the program.

“We’re going to put our best foot forward,” he said. “I’m excited to have this opportunity of coaching the women’s team. I want to take advantage of it every way possible.

“I’m going to try to make it into a great program and put Native American collegiate basketball out there, so that people could be excited about our program,” he added.

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