Heights’ Analyss Benally craves success

The shaping of Analyss Benally’s future occurred long before she became a standout guard at Heights or before she signed to play basketball at San Jose State.

While living with her family on the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, N.M., until she was 9, Benally established a deep love for her family and basketball.

Her determination to succeed is also a byproduct of her time on the reservation.

“Growing up on a reservation, you’re thinking you want to do something (with your future), but then you almost immediately think you can’t,” Benally said.

“… How can I think as a kid where I have dreams that I can do this or that — and then my next thought was I couldn’t do that because I knew I couldn’t be successful?”

Benally’s early links to basketball came from her father, Brian. Even in her first few months of life, he brought her to the tournaments he played in each weekend.

“My dad and cousins would pay $20, make a team and play tournaments all weekend. Basketball was always around me,” Benally said.

There was only dirt on the reservation, but it didn’t stop the Benallys.

“We didn’t have concrete,” Brian Benally said. “We had a dirt yard. One of my buddies was selling a hoop, and we bought it. I told my girls, ‘If you can handle a basketball out here on the dirt, once you hit the court and the hardwood, it will be easy.’ ”

The two talk basketball frequently, although at times Analyss Benally will insist on a card game of UNO instead.

But her father’s approval means everything. This is the first season she has refrained from looking into the stands to see her father’s reaction after she makes a mistake.

“I have always felt that I need to work harder at basketball so he sees I’m as passionate as he is,” she said. “But I don’t think there’s anyone as passionate about basketball as he is.”

Analyss Benally has ballhandling skills, but it’s her scoring ability that Heights coach Kip Pulliam says makes her a Division I player.

“When she was younger, she depended on the outside game and three-point shooting,” Pulliam said. “She has learned to score in a lot of different ways, going to the basket and a lot of pull-up jumpers, head fake off the three.… She’s got range to 25 feet, without a doubt.”

After two games, Benally leads the City League in scoring with a 24.5-point average.

Shooting was the focus growing up on the reservation.

“We call it Rez ball,” Brian Benally said. “As soon as the ball is inbounded, someone’s shooting a three. We’ve got some good shooters out here.”

Analyss Benally’s game has progressed from her time as a freshman playing with a senior-laden team that took second in Class 6A. She’s stronger — and she’s more than just a scorer.

“She sees passes that no one else does,” Pulliam said. “You can’t teach that.… She has also picked up her defense since her first year and become more aggressive.”

But the Benallys have watched other high-caliber athletes come from the reservation only to return home after a year — or less.

“I’ve seen it so many times, great high school athletes and they end up right back at home,” Brian Benally said. “… Back at home playing in the same tournaments with me.”

Family is vital to Native Americans growing up on a reservation, and many times those who leave return because they’re homesick. Analyss Benally understands; she grew up with her grandma next door and aunts, uncles, cousins yards away.

“I just remember being happy all the time,” Benally said. “I’m outside with my sister and cousins, at the gym every weekend. I remember digging holes and playing in the dirt with my cousins. Being with my grandma.”

The focus on family is why Analyss moved with her parents to Kansas so they could be close to her sister, Patience, who is five years older and played basketball at Kansas Wesleyan.

“I thought that she’d come back home immediately,” Brian Benally said of Patience. “I figured if we were closer, she could come visit us when she had a chance.”

But the family isn’t moving to San Jose State with Analyss.

“She’s more outgoing than Patience was, and that will help her be successful,” Brian Benally said. “We want her to get out there and test the waters on her own. I think we’ve prepared her to be successful and strive to succeed at whatever she wants to do.”

Once Benally leaves, she doesn’t want to return. She wants a successful basketball career and a college degree.

She knows it can be done. She idolizes Shoni Schimmel, a Native American who plays for the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA.

She wants it for herself. She wants it for other young Native Americans.

“Because I’m Native American and doing these things,” Benally said, “I’m helping other girls realize what they can do no matter if they are Native American or not.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Heights’ Analyss Benally craves success."