ALUMNI IN ACTION
Analyss Benally: The Fundamentals of Giving Back
By Cassie Myers
Analyss Benally, ’21 Communication Studies, describes herself as a “rambler,” but the truth is simpler and less self-deprecating than that: she has a great deal to say.
Everyone deserves to have their voice heard, of course, just by virtue of existing as a human being, but if anyone has earned their right to speak, it might be Benally: at the age of 26, she’s already played Division I basketball at San José State University; played professional basketball on international teams in Albania, Romania and Kosovo; acted and played basketball in the Netflix movie “Rez Ball” and, most recently, been inducted into the North American Indigenous Athletes’ Hall of Fame.
When you speak with her, though, you learn quickly that she carries these accomplishments both lightly and respectfully. As she puts it, “I take a lot of pride in just being myself, because everything that's happened in my life came from me truly being myself and not trying to portray anyone or anything else I've seen.”
She’s the first to admit that she’s not a one-woman band, however; she has deep roots and intense ties to her family and culture. Benally was born and raised in Shiprock, New Mexico, and lived on the Navajo reservation (which she calls “the rez”) until she was 12, when her sister got a scholarship to play basketball at Kansas Wesleyan and the family moved.
Benally ended up being a star player herself, with a full-ride scholarship to SJSU, where she played all but her final, COVID-interrupted season. She remembers her time at SJSU fondly, and in particular the bond with her teammates: “It was a really nice, tight-knit group,” she says.
Benally in action. Photo courtesy of Analyss Benally.
Benally with the Lady Bobcats basketball team. Photo courtesy of Analyss Benally.
The resident American
Shortly after her college graduation, she was recruited to play professionally overseas, beginning in Romania. It was a challenge, but one she rose to.
“There's a language barrier, there's a different style of play, and then there's trying to connect and build that chemistry with your teammates on the court,” Benally says. “So that part was difficult for a while. And the game itself is a lot more physical.”
Some of her coaches spoke English and some didn’t, but she adapted. She remembers picking up certain words in Romanian (numbers for drills, for example, or the word “defense”) and making her way through the rest of it.
By the time she’d played three international seasons, she’d made a lot of friends and played ball in countries around the globe.
She’s often the only American (or at least, one of a handful of Americans) that her foreign teammates or acquaintances ever meet. But she handles that pressure lightly, too.
“I take pride in being Native American and being one of the faces of pro ball and being that representation,” she explains. “I know who I am. I respect so much of other people's cultures and I don't mind teaching or sharing anything about my own.”
But it’s more than just that: “I take a lot of pride in my character,” she shares. “I believe that I hold myself to a high standard not only as a ball player, but also as a person. It doesn't feel like pressure to me — to be able to represent my culture and my country is an amazing feeling.”
Benally playing professional basketball.
Benally has played professionally on three international basketball teams. Photos courtesy of Analyss Benally.
Rez Ball
Much has been written about Benally’s role on “Rez Ball,” the Netflix movie about a Navajo high school boys’ basketball team. For her part, she remembers only good things about the experience. When she saw the casting call in 2023, she was playing basketball in Albania and although she was desperate to audition, she didn’t think she’d make it home in time.
But fate intervened. The production got delayed just enough so she could join, and then the good news just kept coming: not only would she play basketball onscreen, but she’d be an extra; not just an extra, she’d have a line; and soon enough the movie was premiering and her dad was first in line to get a ticket at the local theater near the reservation. Benally’s whole family attended the premiere, but she was too nervous to watch it with other people.
“That whole first week they were showing it [locally] and a few people I've known for a long time went and watched it,” she remembers. “They went on different days at different times, and they said the movie theaters are packed with people. That was a really cool moment.” And now that she does basketball camps with kids across the country, they regularly shout “Coby!” and “Petty boy!” at her – her two lines from the movie.
Now that Analyss does basketball camps with kids across the country, they regularly shout “Coby!” and “Petty boy!” at her – her two lines from the movie "Rez Ball."
A still of Benally in the Netflix movie "Rez Ball." Photo courtesy of Analyss Benally.
Happy campers
About those camps – Bennally’s career and life have taken many unexpected turns, but one of the most rewarding is her work with basketball camps. It started slowly, when Benally was asked to host a camp after her first season of overseas ball: a local camp at Bloomfield High in New Mexico, where kids from third to twelfth grade, separated into training sessions based on age and skill sets, could train with her. Interest was high.
“It just started snowballing,” Benally remembers. “I'm meeting coaches, they're speaking to me, I'm speaking to their teams and to some of these younger kids. It just turned into, ‘Well, can you come to this area and do a camp?’”
Benally teaches a basketball camp for Havasupai children at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Benally shoots hoops in the Grand Canyon. Photos courtesy of Analyss Benally.
Happy campers
After Benally had hosted a few camps of her own, she also started working with nonprofits, including Rise Above in Seattle, a nonprofit that “empowers Native youth to create remarkable lives.”
“I grew to have so much love and such an appreciation for working with kids, teaching them something I genuinely love to do and that I'm able to call my career now,” she says.
A handful of camps her first summer turned into 13 for her second, including a remarkable opportunity to teach Havasupai children in the Supai village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where she was one of the first people ever to be invited by the tribal members to host a camp.
Now she’s held camps all over the West, including Arizona and New Mexico, with hopes of expanding even further next summer to Wyoming and the Dakotas. Camps usually start with a morning session of third through sixth graders, followed by an intermission and meet-and-greet with Benally, and then an afternoon for seventh through ninth graders, with stations for everything from mechanics to agility and mental health. Her camps often take place in or near Native communities, but don’t specifically focus on that population alone. Benally also works with several coaches and helpers, including her father, a long-time high school girls’ basketball coach, to ensure that every child gets a chance to train.
Benally often focuses on girls’ teams and players, but is hoping to expand to boys’ teams as well. Depending on the camp itself and space they often have to limit the number of attendees, but as far as Benally is concerned, the more the merrier. Many kids come with younger siblings, even toddlers who are far too young to attend camp, and Benally will invite them over and give them a basketball to play with.
During a typical camp, she and her fellow coaches will see roughly 80 kids a day, possibly even 100. Each camp generalky lasts from one to three days, with Benally as the main coach, her dad as support, and more assistant coaches depending on availability and need.
Benally's basketball camp coaching skills on display. Photo courtesy of Analyss Benally.
A homegrown mentor
Benally’s dad, Brian Bennally, a high school girls’ basketball coach at Bloomfield High in Bloomfield, New Mexico, taught her all the fundamentals. He’s a consistent presence at all of her camps – and, of course, in her own life.
“He coached me my entire life,” she says. “So just going to his practices in the summer when I’m home, being able to watch him and mimic him and see how he focuses and how he explains a workout or a detail, or even just the way he speaks to the girls in general [really helps me]. There are coaches who want to be your friend and coaches who are extremely tough on you and it almost drains your spirit. My dad has the perfect balance of knowing basketball is fun, but also we're here to work. He really inspired me.”
“The kids taught me that it's really important to be thankful for what you have instead of constantly looking at the things that you don't.”
— Analyss Benally
Lessons learned
Benally’s also learned a lot from the kids themselves – sometimes it’s just moves on the court, and sometimes it’s a larger lesson about how to approach life.
“The kids taught me that it's really important to be thankful for what you have instead of constantly looking at the things that you don't,” she says. “It's great to have goals, but there's so much power and grace in appreciating the things that are already in your life. And when those things become enough, everything else is just that extra good, that icing on the cake, that feeling of, oh, that's a nice addition to my life.”
And as Benally knows, that icing on the cake could be anything: unexpected travel, time with teammates, a line in a movie — even a short conversation with a kid after a basketball camp. You never know where that “nice addition” will take you.
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