{"id":26064,"date":"2024-08-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/documentary-aims-to-tell-story-of-kirtland-central-girls-basketball\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:32:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:32:50","slug":"documentary-aims-to-tell-story-of-kirtland-central-girls-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/documentary-aims-to-tell-story-of-kirtland-central-girls-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentary aims to tell story of Kirtland Central girls basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=4975d7a5-cad2-573f-83b1-a3a9cfc59ef4&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"From left to right: Tammy Benally, Cherl Lee, Natasha Curtis, Sharona Lee, Raquel Woody, Christy Garrison, Tasha Begay, Karyn Karlin and Shelby Lee are joined by filmmaker Lynette Lewis (seated middle) at Karlin Gym at Kirtland Central High School during production of \u201cKirtland Dynasty\u201d a soon-to-be released documentary on the Kirtland Central girls basketball program. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">From left to right: Tammy Benally, Cherl Lee, Natasha Curtis, Sharona Lee, Raquel Woody, Christy Garrison, Tasha Begay, Karyn Karlin and Shelby Lee are joined by filmmaker Lynette Lewis (seated middle) at Karlin Gym at Kirtland Central High School during production of \u201cKirtland Dynasty\u201d a soon-to-be released documentary on the Kirtland Central girls basketball program. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>KIRTLAND \u2013 The story behind one of the most successful high school sports programs in America is about to be told to a national, if not international, audience with the help of an enterprising filmmaker and San Juan County native.<\/p>\n<p>Lynette Lewis, a graduate from Piedra Vista High School who lives and works in Phoenix, is in the final stages of making the documentary \u201cKirtland Dynasty,\u201d which is likely to be released next year.<\/p>\n<p>The documentary features interviews and historic archived footage from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tricityrecordnm.com\/articles\/kirtland-central-girls-basketball-team-receives-national-award\/\" id=\"link-92519d29a5b8a3e0ee2b25aa6a8e6b99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kirtland Central girls basketball team<\/a>, winners of 21 state championships dating to 1980. Lewis, who played basketball at Piedra Vista and has deep ties to the community, has had the support of coaches and administrators from schools in San Juan County and the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=44bf9910-2101-5425-814c-c33449bf3f23&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1563\" alt=\"Film crews get courtside access to a Kirtland Central girls basketball game during filming of \u201cKirtland Dynasty,\u201d a documentary on the 21-time state basketball championship team. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Film crews get courtside access to a Kirtland Central girls basketball game during filming of \u201cKirtland Dynasty,\u201d a documentary on the 21-time state basketball championship team. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cI grew up knowing the impact of basketball in the community, and I looked up to a lot of these players who came up before me, and now as an adult, it inspired me to tell the story of this specific school that created this legacy,\u201d said Lewis, 36. \u201cI spoke with several players from the 1980 state championship team, and from there it just kind of trickled down where other players and coaches came out and participated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to producing and directing the documentary, Lewis serves as director of Basketball Operations and Program Development for the Native American Basketball Invitational, one of the most prestigious basketball tournaments for high school students in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Shiprock, Lewis moved to Farmington and is working in Phoenix with former professional basketball players and coaches in hopes of promoting the sport for future generations. Her work with NABI, which dates to 2011, allows her to offer tournament management, consultation and basketball skills training services for Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RI1CjCAkz8E\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Lewis is Navajo and graduated from Piedra Vista High School in 2006. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree at Arizona State University and has spent much of her professional career advocating for Native youths on and off the basketball court. Lewis has managed camps across Arizona and other parts of the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiving back to the community is something we\u2019re deeply committed to, and that comes in the form of basketball training camps and helping manage tournaments,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis and her team of filmmakers shot footage of games from the 2022-23 season, as well as this past season as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tricityrecordnm.com\/articles\/kirtland-central-girls-basketball-team-honored-with-parade\/\" id=\"link-6183a18f45124604f1372f13976acf95\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kirtland Central<\/a> worked its way to a third consecutive trip to the Class 4A state finals, which ended with the Broncos <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tricityrecordnm.com\/articles\/kirtland-central-tops-st-pius-earns-21st-state-basketball-title\/\" id=\"link-e128eccca74f0cddf11df324eccdb367\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">beating St. Pius<\/a> at The Pit in Albuquerque last March.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=06d60f33-d9bd-573b-9d44-b7b9f899f736&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1451\" alt=\"Left to right: Rainy Crisp, Ryneldi Becenti, Lynette Lewis and Jaimey Reboca pose for photos at the Eagles Nest at Navajo Prep during production of \u201cKirtland Dynasty,\u201d a soon-to-be released documentary on the Kirtland Central girls basketball program. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Left to right: Rainy Crisp, Ryneldi Becenti, Lynette Lewis and Jaimey Reboca pose for photos at the Eagles Nest at Navajo Prep during production of \u201cKirtland Dynasty,\u201d a soon-to-be released documentary on the Kirtland Central girls basketball program. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>That victory secured the Broncos\u2019 21st state title, which ranks them fourth in the country for most state titles by a girls high school basketball team. <em id=\"emphasis-997e03c29e5bc80baff57057db252e10\">USA Today <\/em>recently honored the Broncos with the distinction of being the national Girls Team of the Year by the newspaper company in the most recent High School Sports Awards.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis hopes the documentary will not only help tell the story of the team and its success, but also bring about added interest in basketball and the importance of the sport across the Navajo Nation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe female representation of the sport is one that doesn\u2019t get told enough,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard as far as exposure is concerned, that even with as much talent as there is on the reservation, but there\u2019s no one there to see it and that\u2019s one of the reasons I wanted to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=382dcd26-18d0-5667-8302-e17e0d19e154&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"Film crews for \u201cKirtland Dynasty\u201d meet with Kirtland Central basketball coaches Isaiah Valdez and Devon Manning during production for the new documentary. (Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Film crews for \u201cKirtland Dynasty\u201d meet with Kirtland Central basketball coaches Isaiah Valdez and Devon Manning during production for the new documentary. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>In addition to interviewing players and coaches from Kirtland Central, Lewis also explores other top basketball talent representing the Navajo Nation, including Navajo Prep athletic director and girls basketball coach Rainy Crisp. Navajo Prep won its latest Class 3A state championship this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFemale Indigenous athletes mean a great deal to me, and I wanted to do something for my community and show people how immense the talent is out here,\u201d Lewis said. \u201c(Crisp) is someone who a lot of us look up to, and I wanted her presence in the documentary being a state champion player and coach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The documentary focuses on former Kirtland Central greats like Nadia Begay-Watson, who played for the Broncos in the early 2000s before playing college basketball at Boise State University. Begay-Watson is Kirtland Central\u2019s volleyball coach. Also featured in the documentary is Jaimey Reboca, who followed her prep career as a Bronco by playing two seasons at Montana State University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKirtland Dynasty\u201d is in the final phases of production, including editing before the project gets pitched to national or international distributors like Netflix or Hulu. The editing and distribution process requires nearly $50,000 in funding in hopes of having the film be released by next summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTelling this story is really important to me, and I hope we can get the word out even more with the trailer out there,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI think if we can keep getting the word out and promoting the film to the right people, we can have this out sometime next summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information about \u201cKirtland Dynasty,\u201d email Lewis at <a href=\"info@lrlewisllc.com\" id=\"link-5470d7fd54179fb16b7ed0402e54402a\" target=\"_blank\">info@lrlewisllc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Kirtland Dynasty\u2019 filmmaker in final phase of production for ambitious project<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[902,799,1047,28,680,642,1097,1815,1655,1710,1709,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-entertainment-general","tag-farmington","tag-film","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-girls-basketball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-indigenous-people","tag-kirtland-central-high-school","tag-navajo-nation","tag-navajo-preparatory-high-school","tag-new-mexico-activities-association","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79210,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26064\/revisions\/79210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26064"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}