Washington County Enterprise-Leader
From state champion to Super Bowl cop
Native American girl realizes fulfillment in Valley of the Sun
PHOENIX, ARIZ. — Carrying out duties as part of the security detail for Super Bowl 57 elevated Phoenix police officer Christina Chavez to celebrity status within Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation.
Attaining that stature seemed improbable growing up. As a young Native American girl, nobody was telling Chavez that she should grow up to be a police officer. She thought about joining the U.S. Navy, and functioned with a sense of stewardship, policing her own family and friends, chastising them for littering.
“When most people think about Native Americans, they think about the alcoholic, or the cartoon version of Pocahontas. Some think we don’t exist and others thought crossing into the reservation was like crossing the Mexican border,” Chavez said. “For me, for anyone, to break outside these norms was strange, because passive girls from the reservation can’t be big city police officers.”
When Chavez left the reservation to play basketball at Scottsdale Community College, there was an overwhelming sense of doubt. She felt alone, and didn’t know anyone in the city.
She encountered mischaracterizations, stereotypes and racism, obstacles she had no idea even existed.
“Most people already have their minds made up about women, about Native Americans, nobody believes in you, but in my heart I knew all I had to do was work hard,” Chavez said.
When she was hired 15 years ago, the Phoenix Police Dept. was approximately 85% white officers and currently is 85% male.
“I don’t care what profession you are in, those are daunting numbers when someone is trying to identify with people who look nothing like you,” Chavez said.
BUSY SUPER BOWL
A plethora of events leading up to Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, a superb of Phoenix, brought in celebrities. Like many police officers, Chavez worked security most of the Super Bowl 57 weekend in addition to her regular patrol duties. Her family was also in town for the Super Bowl weekend adventure and they attended the Kane Brown and Imagine Dragons concert and the Kevin Hart comedy show.
“I have had so many amazing experiences that I sometimes forget that people from back home, or small towns, don’t get to see or participate in many of the things I have,” Chavez said.
While Chavez was working, she tried to send her family photos of all the celebrities she saw such as Tiffany Haddish, Keegan-Michael Key, Tracy Morgan, Perry Mattfeld and many athletes, but it got hectic.
“As a police officer, I could not wait for all the visitors to leave and for the city to get back to normal,” Chavez said.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
The highlight for friends and extended family came through a photo op days before the big game.
When a friend from the police department told her the Super Bowl 57 trophy was in the chief’s office, she immediately knew she had to get down there. Chavez arrived just as the VIPs finished their photo shoot and the trophy was about to be packed away.
“I have always been someone who understands that some opportunities come once in a lifetime and I just go for it, whatever it may be,” Chavez said.
Each person had to put on white, cloth gloves before holding the trophy, which was surprisingly light to Chavez, weighing approximately two pounds.
“Holding the trophy was awe-inspiring, knowing that in just a couple days, that same trophy would be given to the next Super Bowl champions,” Chavez said.
BASKETBALL HEARTBREAK
In 1991 when Montana still played high school girls basketball in the fall, she arrived on scene as a freshman addition to the Hardin varsity girls basketball team in the nick of time. The starting five had talent but the bench was thin and they were struggling — until coach Linda McClanahan promoted Chavez, a 5-6 guard, along with another freshman, Owena Spotted Horse, a 5-6 forward with tremendous upper body strength. Spotted Horse went on to become a state champion in javelin as a track and field athlete.
In a game against their county rival, Lodge Grass, future Kansas recruit Robin Redfield banked in a 3-pointer pushing the Lady Indians ahead by one with time running out. Spotted Horse quickly took the ball out-of-bounds and threw a baseball pass to future Utah volleyball signee, Stacie Greenwalt, who scored and was fouled on the play. Her free throw gave Hardin a nail-biting 2-point win during Chavez’ senior season.
With those two filling a seven-player rotation the Lady Bulldogs thrived in 1991.
As a sophomore Chavez and the Lady Bulldogs endured heartbreak when the Lady Bulldogs missed three shots underneath the goal in the last seven seconds and lost by one point to Ronan in the Class A State semifinals at Whitefish, knowing their opponent, Colstrip, had they made the finals, was a team they had beaten three times that season which came up the other side of the bracket.
Somehow, they got up the next morning, regrouped and found a way to beat nearby Columbia Falls, whose fans filled the house, in a loser-out game before returning later that evening to beat Beaverhead County, which entered as the tourney favorite, to take home a third place trophy.
CRAVING
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
During Chavez’ junior season Hardin got beat out in the divisional tournament and didn’t qualify for state, but as a senior she determined to satisfy the craving for a state championship.
Standing in the way loomed the Havre Lady Blue Ponies in the state semifinal. Hardin trailed much of the second half with McClanahan opting to get out of the twin tower lineup of 6-feet-2 Maria Oswald and 6-feet-1 Greenwalt, the more mobile presence, who stayed on the court with another guard brought in to pressure the ball.
Chavez sacrificed herself chasing the ball and fouled out but ironically that became the catalyst for Hardin’s eventual onepoint victory in the final seconds. Her replacement off the bench, sophomore Cheryl Polacek, drove the lane and drew the fifth foul on Havre’s 5-feet-9 center, a capable rebounder, who had up to that point neutralized Hardin’s trio of six-footers on the boards.
Polacek made the first free throw, but missed the second which would have tied the game. Without their top rebounder on the court the Lady Blue Ponies were vulnerable and Hardin crashed the boards like gang-busters.
Three different Lady Bulldogs took turns trying to put that missed free throw back in the bucket, including Greenwalt and Spotted Horse before Oswald succeeded on her second try.
Oswald’s putback turned out to be the game-winning basket that put Hardin in the state championship game. Oswald’s father, assistant coach Dave Oswald, was considered one of the better tacticians in the state.
UNDERDOG TENACITY
The finals pitted Hardin up against Fergus County, which had three players who went on to play women’s college basketball including State MVP Alicia Cahill, a 6-feet impact player in the post, along with 5-feet-11 forward Lori Brandon and outside shooting guard Lisa Turck, and they expected to win.
The Lady Golden Eagles were not impressed that the Lady Bulldogs took first place at the Eastern A Divisional because Hardin had never won a state championship in girls basketball up to that point.
Chavez can still feel the excitement in the gym at Columbia Falls High and hear the thunderous roar of the crowd. She recalls the Lady Bulldogs appropriately came in as the underdogs, playing a team that was ranked No. 1 all year.
“I could feel it in my bones, when the other team looked at us, they had so much confidence; the audacity that we even showed up to play,” Chavez said. “The only thing on my mind was that I deserved to be there too; and this was my game.”
LIFELONG MEMORY
With the state championship on the line Chavez was at her best, working with shooting guard Kassi Elk Shoulder.
With Cahill and Brandon limiting Hardin’s post game, Chavez scored a team-high 16 points and Elk Shoulder made 6 of 6 field goals including a 3-pointer and a left-handed layup over Cahill from a Chavez pinpoint pass.
In the last minute of the fourth quarter Chavez made two clutch free throws, sinking both ends of the bonus to give Hardin a four-point lead. Brandon’s putback cut it to 56-54.
Hardin inbounded and Chavez was again fouled with seconds remaining.
This time she missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Cahill rebounded and tried to throw a full-court pass to the backup 6-feet center breaking long, but Greenwalt deflected the pass and Elk Shoulder covered the ball as time ran out on the Lady Golden Eagles.
Chavez knows as a police officer and Native American role model she doesn’t always have to be perfect, just get the job done.
“That moment, when I made the last two free throws to win the game, still lives in the hearts and minds of so many people, so many Native Americans. Native Americans don’t have many heroic moments but, in Montana, we will always have that win,” Chavez said.
NATIVE ROLE MODEL
For Chavez holding the Super Bowl 57 trophy in her hands and working as part of the game security pales in comparison to winning a high school state championship.
“As remarkable as that experience was, it does not come close to being part of the 1994 Montana Class A state championship basketball team,” Chavez said.
Her initial motivation for becoming a police officer was just wanting a steady paycheck. She didn’t realize the impact that career choice would have upon her life and for many others.
There are perks to working as a Phoenix Police officer, still some of Chavez’ greatest satisfaction comes while working the beat.
“It is a great feeling when you step out of your patrol car, and a little Hispanic girl looks up to you, points to you and says to her mother, ‘Look mom, it’s a girl cop!’” Chavez said.
She wants Native Americans to be proud and to know that they do not have to go through what previous generations endured or what she had to go through.
“On my reservation, in my small town in Montana, in this big city [of] Phoenix; I see so many broken dreams, so many things people have not experienced,” Chavez said. “That is what motivates me, to not only be a police officer, but to be an example to women, to Native Americans, that success is possible, even when you live amongst people who don’t look like you.”