How Coach Raul Mendoza took ‘rez ball’ to the national stage
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
People often ask Raul Mendoza how he stays so calm.
The Chinle Wildcats varsity basketball coach has perfected his stoicism over four decades. It’s the first thing viewers notice about him when they watch the hit Netflix series “Basketball or Nothing,” which premiered last year. He explains his secret in one sentence: “I learned to realize that I can’t control everything.”
The six-part documentary takes place in Chinle, Arizona, a community on the Navajo Nation with a population of just over 4,500. The Chinle Wildcats draw fans from all over northeastern Arizona, frequently selling out the town's 7,000-seat gym. They play a fast-paced style of hoops known as "rez ball," and teams often have to fight for the win until the last buzzer sounds. Say what you will about hoops in the bubble — there’s nothing else like "rez ball."
Mendoza’s team was the subject of Michael Powell’s book, “Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation.” Powell and the documentary crew followed the team during the 2017-18 season as they clawed their way to a possible state championship.
For many of the boys, basketball is their way off the reservation and into college. Beau Natay, a former Wildcat who served as Mendoza’s assistant coach during the 2017-18 season, says that the legendary coach and the series elevated the basketball program to an entirely different level.
“He never gives up,” Natay says. “It doesn’t matter if there are five-tenths of a second left in a game, he’ll draw something up so someone can get a shot up in time to win the game.”
The difficulties faced by the players, as seen in the documentary, are far more challenging than those faced by players in your typical sports flick. What most people take for granted — electricity and running water — aren’t readily available. Most families in the Navajo Nation live below the poverty line and rely on government assistance.
Alcohol and drug use, as well as suicide rates, are higher on the reservation. In an eye-opening scene in the second episode, Natay gives the filmmakers a tour of “the Wash,” a bridge underneath the main highway in Chinle strewn with meth pipes and other drug paraphernalia.
“We understand their situation, and we’re there to help,” Natay says. “Some of these boys that are playing, their families don’t have the money to get them the basketball shoes and gear that they need. We’ll give them or chip in for a pair of shoes so they can perform well.”
Mendoza, a former counselor, can tune in to what they are going through and tell them what they need to hear. His pastor once told him that coaching and counseling was his calling. Growing up in the southern Arizona Tohono O'odham tribe, he’s had (and learned from) many of the same experiences as the kids.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of suicidal kids,” he says. “I had a kid who I dealt with for two years, and then he graduated. My first thought was, ‘Is he going to be ok?’ Two years later, he came up to me and said, ‘I want to thank you for helping me out in high school. I don’t have that problem anymore. I’m in my second year of college.’”
He says, “In high school, he didn’t know if he was going to make it to the next day. I expected him to do well after high school, but it was way beyond my expectations. It makes it all worthwhile.”
And this isn’t the first time one of Mendoza’s basketball teams has been in the national spotlight. When he was coaching the Alchesay Falcons in 1998, his assistant coach was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who volunteered for the job. He was grateful to the NBA legend for the help, but the time with Abdul-Jabbar wasn’t entirely pleasant.
“When Kareem was there, we had a lot of potential, but the kids were distracted,” Mendoza says. “Their picture was in Sports Illustrated. I use this [situation] a lot to get the kids to understand that this kind of thing can affect them if they allow it. When I went to Chinle, I had an idea of what to do and get everyone on the same page.”
He wants to teach the boys to focus on what they can control and on the things they’ll learn on the court, like trust and hard work, that will help them survive life after high school basketball.
“He has a lot of patience,” Natay says. “There were days where we went over the same play for an hour and a half so the boys would get it done right. He wants them to see a bigger picture when it comes to running a play, but he also wants them to see that in life. He stresses that there’s a lot more to life than being on the rez.”
“Not everybody is going to play basketball,” Mendoza says. “As a counselor, I always ask kids as a freshman, ‘What do you want to do?’ Most of them say they want to go to college. And then I ask what kind of job they want to do. I try to get them to connect their courses to what is going to lead them to a career.”
But with success comes sacrifice. For Mendoza, victory has come at the expense of time with his family. He knows that if it wasn't for his wife, he couldn’t get the boys where they need to be to rise to the next level.
“I feel bad that I was an absent father because of my job,” Mendoza says. “I haven’t gone on a vacation. I travel a lot, but it has to do with my job. I haven’t had time.”
When the coach wasn’t practicing with the team or in front of the camera, he was driving his daughter Teralyn to breast cancer treatment appointments. Last year, she had a brain tumor removed, which led to some complications. And while the pandemic has allowed the coach to make up for lost time with his wife, his daughter died of complications due to COVID-19 in June.
When conditions allow it, he will return to coach the Chinle Wildcats. And there will be another season of “Basketball or Nothing.” Despite enduring personal tragedies over the past year, Mendoza is focused on the things he can control. He says it's the only thing he knows.
“Losing someone in your family is a tough thing, but you have no control over it,” Mendoza says. “But it made me think about the past. My family understood and encouraged me. I was very thankful for that.”