‘Still the team to be’: Meskwaki Warriors end season at Sub-State Tournament

CHINLE

It has been a long road for the Iowa Meskwaki boys’ basketball team. They’ve been playing together since they were kids. Last Saturday night, they played their final game together at the Sub-State tournament, having the honor of getting their school, Meskwaki Settlement School, to the tournament for the first time in their program’s history.

Seniors Tiernan Wanatee and Evan Nelson are two members of the team who share the Meskwaki and Navajo cultures. Nelson has family from Window Rock who listened to the game, while Wanatee has relatives from Ganado who traveled to Iowa to watch him play.

The game started out rough for the Meskwaki Warriors as they faced the North Linn High Lynx. North Linn has been to state four consecutive times while Meskwaki made its first appearance at the Sub-State Tournament. North Linn versus Meskwaki was the last game to decide who would continue to the state tournament.

The Warriors were caught off guard by the skill and ferocity of North Linn, giving the boys little time to breathe as they worked to keep up. By the end of the first quarter, it was 25 to 10 in favor of the North Linn squad.

“It was a tough game,” Nelson said. “They were a really good team. Well disciplined, and we knew it was going to be a fight coming in. I feel like it went pretty well, but we started out slow. When you start out slow, it’s hard to come back from it. We picked it up, cut the lead down as many as five down in the fourth, but we got tired and couldn’t finish.”

At the start of the second quarter, the Warriors rallied. They began to show the teamwork and stamina that had gotten them this far. They put pressure on North Linn. Warriors Taurice Grant and Bishop Chavez led the advance.

By the third quarter, the boys sprinted up and down the court, making it a game of endurance as the Warriors tried to outpace the Lynx.

Tiernan Wanatee was able to lock down his opponents and had the opportunity to score a three-pointer on behalf of his team.

“We played our hardest, maybe not our best game, but we played like it was our last,” Wanatee said. “Their shooting and their quickness, they were quick on backdoors and getting to the rim. Just having more height than us put it in their favor.”

Then it was basketball blitz. The Warriors were making ground, 5 points away from catching North Linn and taking the lead by the fourth quarter.

The Warriors pushed themselves to get close to surpassing the Lynx, but they began to lose steam, and North Linn began pulling ahead. Seeing their chance, North Linn turned the tables and began pressuring the Warriors, pushing them to breaking. The final five minutes were another rush as the teams battled it out. The Warriors broke away with the ball and tried to make one last score, but the buzzer blared and ended the game.

The final score was 67 to 48, with the experienced North Linn going off to state for the fifth time in a row. Chavez, Grant, and Wanatee pushed their team forward by scoring 8 points each. Nelson scored 6 points for the team.

It was the hardest battle of the Warriors’ career, but they gave their all and made the No. 1 Iowa team sweat during the third quarter.

“They’re a quality team,” Coach Garrett Bear said of their opponent. “I think this is their fifth straight year going to state. They’re a good team trying to handle the pressure. That was our game plan, too, to add pressure and speed to the game. But you also got to be able to handle it when people threw it back to you, and at times, we didn’t do that too well.”

The game was history in the making for the Warriors. They made it further than anyone else has in their 11-year-old basketball program, but they didn’t make it as far as they had hoped. Thus, ending their basketball season with a 20-3 record, not counting the sub-state game.

“It’s kind of bittersweet right now knowing that the season is over,” Wanatee said. “I hope that these younger kids coming up through middle school and high school take what we have done and go further. I don’t want this season to be the highest of our career or of our program. This is just the bar; we want other kids to go beyond.”

Coach Bear likewise wished they could have gone to state, but he is nonetheless proud of his boys, whom he has known for years.

“They have been together since the third grade. There were times from third grade to eighth grade where every weekend from the end of October to early March we were at a tournament. That’s a lot of time spent together,” Bear said.

“There were times when I see my basketball family, which are those boys, more times than I see my own kids, but that was a commitment we made to each other. … It’s frustrating that we didn’t make it to that goal, but it isn’t always about the result. It’s how you go about it and what you accomplished, the friendships and lessons you learn on that journey. You can’t put a value on that. … I’ll remember this group forever.”

Recently, the All-Iowa Star Conference South Division bestowed Taurice Grant (senior) and Osceola Tyon (junior) from Meskwaki with Conference First Team Honors.

Wanatee was given Conference Second Team Honors. Also, Wanatee has awards for the All-8-Man District 5 Football Teams. He was a part of the First Team Defense as a linebacker. Recently he became the recipient of the University of Northern Iowa’s V.I.P. Scholarship, covering his tuition and fees for four years. He is planning to study accounting.

In addition, Nelson got a Conference Honorable Mention for the second year in a row. He also has honors from playing football, being a part of First Team Defense as a defensive back. Nelson has also received honors from other organizations, such as the Des Moines Register Final #5 Tackles Defensive Back State, Cedar Rapids All-Area Football Team Defensive Back, Marshalltown Times-Republican All-Area Football Team Wide Receiver, and 1st Team All-Region. He hopes to get the opportunity to continue playing sports at the next level.

Coach Bear was named Coach of the Year for the All-Iowa Star Conference South Division.

Although the boys would have loved to make it all the way to state, they were nonetheless happy with this season.

“Knowing where we come from and knowing what our ancestors have gone through for us to be right here … I play with that sense of pride, wearing the Meskwaki name on my chest,” Wanatee said. “This whole season has been a roller coaster; I feel like our season would have been a lot smoother without COVID and without some of our players being out due to sickness or transfer eligibility. Overall, though, it’s been a fun four years of playing with this group of guys.”

“I want to thank all my coaches and all of the fans I have in Arizona, all of the fans here in Iowa, and just thanks for supporting me,” Nelson said. “I’m just hoping that the younger generation can beat our record of making it that far into the playoffs and hopefully go to the place that we couldn’t, which is state, and I’m just excited to see what the future will hold for the rest of the team. And there are some really good juniors coming back next year, so Meskwaki is still the team to be.”

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