by By RYAN CRAIG
KYNR News
WHITE SWAN, Wash. – A White Swan High School senior recently signed his letter of intent to play basketball for Haskell Indian Nations University.
Teal Soaring Eagle, 18 and of White Swan, signed his letter of intent May 1 while in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Soaring Eagle said he almost didn’t make the trip to the high school tournament that weekend. He said it was his mother that encouraged him to go. Once there, Soaring Eagle said the news from a close family friend that the Haskell men’s basketball coach wanted to meet with him came as a surprise.
“It felt like a dream, really,” said Soaring Eagle. “I mean, I never really saw this day coming, to be honest.”
Soaring Eagle said he called his mother, Lauren Ganuelas, to share the news with her about the Haskell coach asking if he’d like to sign a letter of intent. After inquiring about the academics and sports programs at the university, Soaring Eagle said he chose to sign.
“I’m just blessed to be able to go to Haskell University and play basketball,” he said.
Soaring Eagle is a 6’2” guard who has been a starter on the White Swan High School basketball team since his freshman year.
In 2020 he was named to the first team of the all-tournament team at the 2B state tournament held in Spokane, Wash.
Soaring Eagle grew up in Mission, Ore. A Umatilla tribal member and Yakama Nation descendant, he said it was at a young age that his love for the game of basketball began.
“Growing up, I was living in the projects and we had this little basketball court outside and everyone would just meet up there and go play basketball,” Soaring Eagle said. “I’ve played basketball my whole life. I definitely have a lot of love for it.”
During the spring of his 8th grade year, Soaring Eagle moved from the Umatilla Reservation to Yakama.
“I had this friend that told me, ‘hey, come down to White Swan’ and from there it was just great,” he said.
Soaring Eagle said that while he loved to play basketball, he didn’t take it seriously as far as workouts and extra time in the gym until his freshman season. Since that year in 2017, Soaring Eagle said he has worked year round on improving his game and getting stronger and faster.
“It’s kind of all I focus on these days,” he said. “I spend a lot of time in the gym. I feel like if I see family it’s rarely. And I mostly only see my friends in the gym. It’s a big sacrifice,” said Soaring Eagle.
For Soaring Eagle, the goal of a better life after high school is what kept him motivated to work as hard as he does year round.
“The number one thing that keeps me motivated to keep going is to see my family in a better situation,” he said, “and being more stable and happy in life.”
Soaring Eagle said he has never been to the Lawrence, Kansas campus of Haskell before. He said he is looking forward to the college-life and is excited to attend classes this fall. He said he has friends from Washington state and Idaho who also plan on attending Haskell.
Soaring Eagle said he’s still researching what field he’d like to focus on while in college.
“I was planning on going into business management but then I heard a lot of it had to do with math, and I’m not that good at math,” he said. “Now I’m looking at going into communications or something related to that because I’m pretty good at reading and writing and with my English.”
Soaring Eagle said his message to anyone else that has a goal to attend college and play basketball is simple.
“Just working hard. In the end it’s all worth it. All the hard work,” he said.
Soaring Eagle said it’s still hard for him to believe how fast everything happened on a weekend trip to a tournament in Oklahoma City.
“It can happen to anyone, really,” said Soaring Eagle. “I mean I’m just a kid from Mission, Oregon who was bound to be nothing, really. That’s what it seemed like, but just putting in the hard work and believing in yourself and leaving all the negative thoughts out, really.”
(Story reprinted with the permission of the Yakama Nation Review. All rights reserved)
