Alyssa Looks Twice (Oglala-Sioux) will Take Her Shot at the Big Leagues in Tampa

By Dale Pine Jr., special for NDNSports.com

When Alyssa Looks Twice (Oglala-Sioux Tribe) scored her 1,000th point against the University of Jamestown on January 7th, it was symbolic of just how far she has come.

She had committed four years to her college team, a program that at times struggled just to field a team. On Thanksgiving weekend, her college team, Oglala Lakota College (OLC), suited only four players. Despite being undermanned Alyssa scored 56 points in a Bravehearts victory. Tomorrow she will face her biggest athletic challenge yet, participating in the prestigious Merit Management Pro Combine in Tampa, Florida.

The combine will be attended by some of the top college seniors in the country, most of them NCAA Division 1 players, testing their skills in front of WNBA coaches, general managers, and overseas scouts. OLC has a unique, decentralized, set up for how it offers college courses. There are nine college centers located in each of the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s nine districts throughout the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that offer courses to students. Students regularly travel from one college center to the next depending on what courses are offered.

For OLC’s basketball players, it can be difficult to drive across the reservation to attend class, only to drive another direction to attend practice. It could be seen as a hardship all in it’s own, yet, the basketball players and coaches are very dedicated to make it work. “There were definitely tough times but for me personally, the competition made it all worth it. We played these NAIA schools that were so talented. Someone was always faster, better, stronger, so it always pushed you to your limit but from that comes growth, as a player,” said Looks a Twice. “OLC was a stepping stone for me. My coach (Mary Tobacco) always believed in me and worked with me and I never experienced that before. She put that confidence into my head and that’s what shaped me into the player that I am today.”

The college has always participated in the AIHEC tournaments since the 1980’s, but didn’t start an official athletic department until 2008. Although OLC isn’t a member of any major national athletic associations such as the NCAA or NAIA, it follows the NAIA eligibility guidelines and the NCAA transfer recruiting rules. The school applied for NAIA membership in 2010 after completing it’s new state of the art health and wellness center. At the time the program was still in it’s infancy and the NAIA said to apply again in the future when the athletic programs were more established.

OLC has had it’s moments in sports. Deb Iron Cloud was featured in a 1987 edition of “Faces In the Crowd” by Sports Illustrated when she scored 48 points in the National Tribal College championship game. OLC finished that game with just two players and won the game. The womens program also won tribal college championships in 1985, 1988, 1989, 1997, 1999, 2012 and most recently in 2012 prior to this year’s championships. Alyssa matched that feat this past March by scoring 48 points while guiding OLC to another AIHEC championship in 2015.

Looks Twice attended high school at Little Wound High School in Kyle, South Dakota and her hometown is Manderson. She is the daughter of Gordon and Lisa Looks Twice. “It means so much to me, to be recognized for doing something that I have so much passion for. This is a dream come true,” said Looks Twice. “It means even more to be representing the Oglala Sioux Tribe in such a good way. I only hope that this sends a good message to the youth that these opportunities are possible. It is possible to grow up on the reservation, go to school on the reservation, and these opportunities are still possible to achieve.”

To make her Florida trip possible, several donors from across the country made contributions to Alyssa’s GoFundMe page. One notable donor was former Oregon State and current overseas player Joe Burton who is a member of the Soboba Tribe in California. Private donors and contributions from the tribe also helped to cover the costs. For this small town girl, she is showing that big time dreams aren’t just for those girls from big cities.