by By Dan Ninham
Coaches and family members of high school and college athletes have a tremendous amount of influence on student-athletes. Oftentimes, the lessons on and off the field, court, mat, track, and pool have lifelong connections.
LisaMarie Begay, 19, plays softball for Lamar Community College in Lamar, CO.
“I’m from the Navajo tribe and I was born into the Kinłichii’nii and Táchii’nii clan,” said LisaMarie.
“My main athletic accomplishments are as an eighth grader I made Second Team All-District,” said LisaMarie. “During my high school years from freshman to junior I made First Team All-District. My eighth grade and junior years I received All-Tourney for the Santa Fe Indian School Softball Tournament. During my sophomore year I received All-Tourney for the Wingate softball tournament, and I also received the player of the year award. I also played with a summer travel team, in the summer of 2017 and 2018 we went back to back champions for NABI which is a well-known tournament in Phoenix during 2018 I made the all-tourney team.”
“The tribal core values that I stick by that define who I am as an athlete are obedience, passion, and having self-belief,” said LisaMarie. “By being obedient I respect the people in my life whether they are family, coaches, or teachers. By having passion I had to put all of my hard-work into everything that I do. This will help me by achieving what I’m trying to succeed in. Having self-belief is having confidence and faith in myself that I will achieve anything that comes in my way no matter what.”
“As an athlete I don’t really know where I am going,” said LisaMarie. “As of right now I’m just trying to finish my education and focus on what I am doing now. My goal is to become a nurse and come back to my community and give back, and also take care of my family. I’m going to get there by getting everything I need to get there, work hard, and not let anything stop me from getting what I want in life.”
“My mentor in life is my mom,” said LisaMarie. “She helped me by teaching me from right and wrong, and telling me what was better for me in life. She taught me how to not give up and to be strong in any situation that is given to you and fight through it. She influenced me to become the person who I am today and made a huge impact in my life.”
“As a mother of a beautiful 19-year old daughter, I am blessed every day to watch her grow into the athlete she has become,” said mother Elsie Begay. “She played multiple sports of baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball. With all that put together she kept her balance with timing and patience. She had to learn to be competitive, aggressive, and self-confident, and adapt to different situations, have commitment and she’s the one who has a raw talent to sports. This is something that certain athletes are just born with. She also learned to embrace her failures too.”
“I’ve told her she’ll always meet failure head on, but how you react to it that will define you. As parents we never push her to do things right on the field or never corrected her. We guide her through life as life throws many challenges and blessings her way,” added Elsie.
“We encourage her to be herself and always think positive and maintain her potential to succeed in life but one thing I’ve always said to her is to be humble,” said Elsie.
“My high school coaches were Rae Collins and Marvis Frazier,” said LisaMarie. “Both coaches influenced my life and they both taught me how to be a team player and how you need a team to succeed and how into not all about one person.”
“Lisa played for Shiprock High School for five years starting her eighth grade year,” said Rae Collins, head softball coach at Shiprock HS. “She is a tremendous athlete who contributed to the softball program in many ways here at Shiprock HS. She is coachable from all aspects of the game from fielding, to batting and even being one of our main pitchers.”
“Over the years her leadership grew from being the silent lead by example to being able to communicate not only with her teammates but also with the coaching staff. Her knowledge of the game grew each year no matter who was her coach she was able to be versatile and play positions that her coach needed,” said Rae.
“Lisa is athletic, hardworking, supportive, resilient, competitive, versatile, humble, family-oriented, respectful, and shows great sportsmanship,” said Rae. “As a student-athlete she continued to understand the importance of her education and stayed on top of her classwork.”
“A lot of who Lisa is, is attributed to her family and how supportive and encouraging they are of her in athletics and outside of athletics. Lisa understood that she represented not just herself but also her family, her school and the community being a student-athlete of Shiprock HS,” added Rae.
“I’ve known Lisa since her eighth grade year where she played for Shiprock HS for five years,” said Marvis Frazier, Shiprock HS softball assistant coach. “Every year she was with us was always a season to look forward to. However, due to her senior being lost due to COVID we missed on the opportunity to see awesomeness from Lisa and her teammates.”
“Since her first days of her high school softball years she has been a coach’s dream. She had so much talent as a young player. She always worked hard. She worked hard to get better, she worked hard to help her teammates get better and she worked hard to make her school better,” added Marvis.
“Lisa was a good player that was confident but never arrogant,” said Marvis. “She had full control over her skills, but was never over-confident in her abilities. She never let up or gave up on the field, at bat or on the bases, even when her team was on the losing side of the game she gave her all.”
“Lisa was someone everyone could look up to and someone they could count on,” said Marvis. “She always had a smile on her face no matter the situation. She made her teammates love the game and was a great leader. She is someone the youth could really look up to. The thing I respected the most about her was she did all this by not wanting to be in the spotlight but by wanting her team to be successful.”
“My travel softball coach is Rod Yellowman,” said LisaMarie. “He influenced my life by teaching me the ways of softball and helping me understand the game from when I first started playing softball at eight years old.”
“Lisa is very quiet but always willing to learn,” said Rod Yellowman, club softball coach. “She knows the game very well, plays multiple positions. Lisa has a terrific attitude, never gives up and she keeps grinding. She also played basketball and volleyball and that shows she’s an excellent athlete.”
“My first coach was Steve White,” said LisaMarie. “He influenced my life by teaching me what I need to know as a player. I played for him for baseball at the age of seven and he taught me the basics that I needed to know. He developed me into the player I am today.”
“When I first saw Lisa she was a small player but don’t let that fool you,” said Steve White, coach of the Shiprock Blazers and Native Pride baseball teams. “She has a passion and love for baseball and softball that couldn’t be matched. She had a god given talent for the games of baseball and softball.”
“Lisa has a great attitude and work ethic but not just in softball but any sport she plays. “She is a great kid too and a great teammate,” added Steve.
“As a child I was pushed into playing sports,” said LisaMarie. “I didn’t just play one sport but I played four. I played baseball, softball, basketball, and volleyball.”
“In 2009 I played with a baseball team named Shiprock Blazers in the Roberto Clemente division,” said LisaMarie. “When I first met the coach I remembered him telling me that I was too small and that this isn’t my league that I can play in. While playing with this team I finished out the league with improvement. With this team we became the division champs and qualified for the World Series.”
“This is where it all started with every summer. The year after this my mom put me in the upper division with my brother because she didn’t want to go to two different practices. My brothers division was for 12 year olds and I was 10 years old. After a few years of playing baseball I was asked to play softball. From then I played softball along with basketball and volleyball.”
“Lisa was a great team leader to our team, led by example through everything she did,” said Kristen Silva, Lamar CC head softball coach. “She earned a spot on the field and really came through for us in clutch situations. Good hitter, never really showed emotion or stress or anything. She was a great ball player and I’m excited for her sophomore year and for her to lead us again.”
“Lisa is a leader by her actions,” said Erin Sharpe, Lamar CC assistant softball coach. “She never complained about anything that we asked her to do. Day in and day out Lisa was the most positive and hard-working athlete that I as a coach loved to be around. You can tell that she has heart for that game, and that’s getting harder to find while recruiting.”
Photo Credit: Krissi May Photography
