by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
“I went from being a benchwarmer on junior varsity my junior year in high school, to starting on varsity my senior year,” said Samuel Marqueda-Lamebull. “I continued on to playing college basketball and then to ultimately being able to sign with NAIA D2 Westcliff University this spring.”
Samuel Marqueda-Lamebull, 20, is a part of the Tlingit Tribe from Southeast, Alaska. His parent’s are Jose Marqueda and Samantha Lamebull, and the family lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
“I am a sophomore basketball player at Northwest Indian College,” said Samuel Marqueda-Lamebull. “I was named to the 2019 AIHEC All-Tourney Team, and scored 41 points in a game against NAIA D2 Northwest Christian University.”
Westcliff University Warriors Athletics was recently granted full membership in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). It is located in Irvine, California.
“We are excited having Samuel join our program,” said Jerred Cook, head basketball coach at Westcliff University. “I can relate to his perseverance and I admire his ambition as he reached out to our staff for an opportunity. Samuel will be redshirting for us this upcoming year and will receive that opportunity to develop, get acclimated to our system, and compete for possible minutes next year.”
“My tribal core values are how I was brought up,” said Samuel. “All these values and morals have shaped me into not only the person I am today, but the athlete as well. Three of my tribe’s core values are, respect, responsibility, and sense of humility.”
“Respect has defined me as a student-athlete because I believe that I am representing so many things when I go out onto the court,” said Samuel. “I’m having respect for not only the opponents, but the referee’s and the spectators are important to me as well.”
“Responsibility is important to me as a student-athlete because it will translate into real life scenarios,” said Samuel. “I take responsibility for not only the mistakes I make on the court, but if I can properly take responsibility for the good things I do, then success will feel like a natural feeling for me in real life scenarios.”
“Lastly, sense of humility is important to me because it is giving me a sense of what I am playing for,” said Samuel. “The game is bigger than me and seeing the bigger pictures can humble me and also take pressure off my shoulders.”
“I had the privilege to coach Sam this past season,” said Adam Lane, head basketball coach at Northwest Indian College. “Sam has been a coaches dream during his time at NWIC and an outstanding basketball player on both ends of the court, a leader in the locker room, and an excellent student in the classroom. He was not only a vocal leader for us, but also led by example. We played close to 40 games this past season, before being shut down because of Covid-19. At various times during the season, we played seven games in nine days in five different cities. We played four games in four days multiple times and we played four games in three days at one point. We traveled all over Washington, Oregon and Idaho and Montana and going as far as San Francisco, CA. The colleges we played were highly competitive as well. Many of these were against NCAA D2 and D3 and NAIA D1 and D2 colleges. So the season was definitely a grind.”
“Sam was our statistical leader in points, assists, and steals while matching up against the opponents best players on defense. Our practices are at 6 a.m. every day and he was consistently the first one to the gym in the morning, never missing a practice. To balance the schedule that we played, going to practice at 6 every day and a full load of classes is very impressive. Just staying eligible is an achievement in itself, but Sam has maintained a 3.5 cumulative GPA over the past two years and is on track to graduate this year with his Associate’s Degree before transferring to Westcliff University this fall,” added Adam.
“Sam is leaving us with a career high of 41 points against Northwest Christian (NAIA),” said Adam. “The schedule that we play definitely prepares our guys to make the leap to that next level. We challenge ourselves every year and gain valuable experience playing the level of competition that we do. This helps our guys determine what they need to work on and what it takes to play against high level athletes game in and game out. I believe Sam has the work ethic, both in the gym and in the classroom, experience and the drive to be successful to play at the NAIA level and I am excited to see what he can do. We’re glad that he spent the past two years with us at NWIC and are hoping for nothing but success for him at Westcliff.”
“The physical skill training plan I use is during the summer I hit the weight room everyday after my eight-hour schoolwork shift and get a nice moderate lift in,” said Samuel. “After that, I come back home and shoot around for about two hours. I repeat this everyday throughout the week, and on the weekends I would mainly work on my skill set, adding new moves, etc…”
“Some areas I need to improve on mentally in my sport is embracing the moment,” said Samuel. “At times I get too caught up in what’s next and I don’t take the time to realize how blessed I am to even be playing college basketball. One thing I would say that has gotten better for me mentally is my ability to play in front of crowds. From my senior year of high school to now, I went from not wanting a packed gym at the game to loving the moment and wanting to play in front of as many people. I had just learned that this is all a game and I need to go out there and have fun.”
“I connect with my spirituality is always thinking about my roots, remembering where I came from and also thinking about playing for a bigger cause,” said Samuel. “This includes always remembering that I am representing more than just myself when I go out on that court. I like to also connect myself spiritually before games, and I do that by isolating myself prior to warm ups, listening to music and just trying to clear my mind.”
“The main mental strategy I use when situations get tough is remembering that this is all entertainment,” said Samuel. “Win or lose, life is still going to be the same after the game and that takes a lot of pressure off of my shoulders. The key part in staying mentally prepared for a game is to trust my work. I felt that I worked extremely hard to get to where I am and I trust my work game in and game out and that is how I have found my success at the college level.”
“The story begins my first two years of high school when I played basketball for fun but I was never actually on the team,” said Samuel. “My freshman year a teacher told me I didn’t make grades so I didn’t try out but later on that year I found out that I actually did make grades and I had lost that year of playing. Sophomore year I actually didn’t make grades and with having two years left of high school basketball I wanted to make the most of it. Junior year was a struggle. I tried out for the team and they assigned me to the junior varsity squad. At first I felt offended being that I was a junior and I was on junior varsity. But I wasn’t too worried because I felt that if I got the opportunity then I would showcase that I belong on varsity. Well I never got that opportunity, I played about four minutes a game, and there was a four game span when I didn’t play at all.”
“After a summers length worth of hard work, I entered my senior season where the coach already had a point guard,” said Samuel. “From workouts and tryouts my head coach was impressed so he started me at the shooting guard at the beginning of the season. I had a great first four games of the season and my coach pulled me to the side and asked if I had ever heard of Northwest Indian College and if I would be interested in going. I had never thought about going to college because I never really did well in school, but him mentioning college meant to me that he thought I could compete at that level. So I continued to work during the season, eventually shifting over to the starting point guard position.”
“After my senior year my head coach connected me with the former head coach at Northwest Indian College,” said Samuel. “We talked a little bit back and forth until he resigned as the head coach. As time went on I had another tribal school interested and a D3 at the time. I saw the competition that NWIC played and wanted to see if I could compete against even higher levels. I went down to NWIC and started at point guard for two years and this month I signed my letter of intent to continue my basketball and academic career at Westcliff University.”
“When the pandemic came it felt like another year wasted so when the season ended I immediately began working,” said Samuel. “I ran the sand dunes, played everyday, and I worked on my weaknesses, all by myself. I didn’t need any trainers or coaches to guide me, I just did what kids used to do before all these training services came about, which was go outside and just hoop.”
Photo Credit: Samuel Marqueda-Lamebull
