Layla Curtis In The News
Good evening TCUSD Family,
I know it’s getting late on a Sunday evening, but I came across this tonight and just had to share it with you. Take a few minutes when you get a chance and watch this story featuring one of our own, Tuba City High School’s Layla Curtis:
CLICK HERE to see Video: How Navajo star Layla Curtis found her path through hoops
How awesome is this?
It is always special when we get an opportunity to celebrate one of our kiddos and see a TCUSD student represent Tuba City, her family, her community, and the Navajo Nation on a bigger stage.
Tonight, we get to celebrate Layla, but I hope this also reminds us of something I believe deeply: I am proud of ALL our kiddos.
Every day across TCUSD, we have young people with their own talents, dreams, stories, and incredible potential. Their path may be athletics, academics, the arts, CTE, leadership, service, or something they have not even discovered yet. Our job is to help them discover it.
Somewhere in our school's tomorrow morning is another young person beginning to realize what they are capable of. We get the privilege of being part of that journey. That’s why what we do matters.
Congratulations, Layla! Keep making Tuba City proud. And to ALL our TCUSD kiddos, we see you, we believe in you, and we are proud of you.
Have a great night, Warriors!
Scott Nedrow
Superintendent
Tuba City Unified School District No. 15
From a remote home in Gap to Arizona's biggest stage, Layla Curtis shares the journey behind her rise.
CLICK HERE to see Video: How Navajo star Layla Curtis found her path through hoops
Video Transcript
Basketball is, is, is an outlet for most kids around here.
It's, it's a religion almost.
It, it's something that they start when they're little.
For some, it's an outlet to go out and just to get away from things.
We have a lot of social ills on the reservation.
In the education environment, we, you know, when we talk about a lot of these kids having trauma, you know, a social trauma, you know, they, they just, they just don't have good living conditions, you know?
As a coach, I tell them that, you know, "If you wanna pursue this any further, this is your ticket out of here."
You know, "This..." You know, but, but there's a lot of work into it, you know?
We, we are about, an hour south of Page and w- and an hour north of Flagstaff, you know, in desert area, and we're pretty much sand and rocks and weed, you know?
They hoop at almost every place.
You know, in every lot around here, there's, there's probably a basketball goal.
Might be uneven ground, you know, surface, but that's where they learn how to play.
I grew up playing around basketball.
My dad played basketball, my brothers played basketball, so I kinda just grew up in that basketball family, and I knew that, that over time I was just gonna develop that love for basketball.
My dad, this is the goal he shot on when he was little, or playing basketball.
So he fixed it up, put a new backboard and everything, but now I use it, so.
I saw Layla play junior high basketball.
She was the eighth-grade player.
She just dominated.
And starting at forward, a freshman, number 24, Layla Curtis.
I wanted to stay home.
Home is where your family is, so.
Layla Curtis, the freshman, expect big things from her tonight.
She just went and took it upon herself to be the leader.
In the corner, back and forth.
Denhalter's toss, that's missed.
Congratulations to the Tuba City Warriors.
Wow, what an ending.
She's a wonderful player.
Layla is one of the top players in Arizona, and I would say not just because her skill level, but because her dedication, her determination, and her work ethic.
Layla's special, and the reason I say special is I started training Layla when she was in second grade, and in second grade, it's really hard to find kids with fire in them, but not Layla.
She's a special kid, working extremely hard.
She's such a great basketball player that she has Ball is Life.
She also has other clothing lines, that she's a part of.
But one special thing with her is c- she continues to work.
She does not let that go to her head.
She's very humble.
She's still in the gym, adding to her craft to continue, you know, inspiring other kids and other people.
Her basketball IQ is pretty high.
There's some things that she sees on the floor that sometimes I don't see.
You know, she's like, "Coach, Coach, we should try this.
Coach, let's do this.
Coach, I noticed that, you know, w- why don't we give the ball over here and get her to score?"
Seeing her passion and her natural talent, I think that kind of is where I saw it at a very young age.
My faith in God has brought me as far as I am today, and I have a Christian family, so I'm just so grateful to have them and their constant prayers for me and their constant support.
Seeing the countless hours of her training, the traveling that we do- Come on, Layla.
And staying the top student in her class and seeing all the hard work that she puts in, I'm, I'm very proud of her.
Yeah, I, I wanna be that representation for the younger generation or just for the Navajo or the reservation in general.
You're okay.
You'll get it.
I think that's always been a goal, is just to become that, that person that people look up to.
I just wanna show the kids that anything is possible, especially coming from a rural place like this, and just knowing that someone with the same lifestyle was able to accomplish these kind of things.
And one day, we had Layla at the camp, and then she went through all her drills.
These little girls were following her.
It's like, and th- now they want number 24, you know?
And, she, I think she's, what she's brought is, for these little girls, a lot of hope.
"I wanna be like her.
I wanna be like I want j- I wanna play exactly like her."
So, so what Layla's gonna do now is just, "This is how hard I work.
This is how hard you have to work.
Nothing can get in your way."
It's kinda lit the fire for our girls, and not only, not only in this community, but, but probably on the reservation, you know?