There they stood, sweaty shoulder to sweaty shoulder, forming a circle around their coach.
With just more than three minutes remaining in the third quarter of the 2025 Continental Athletic Conference women’s basketball championship game, Haskell Indian Nations University trailed Northern New Mexico College by eight points. Coach Adam Strom called a timeout and, without asking, looked around and immediately saw all eyes were locked in on him. Heads nodded in agreement as he told his players and staff that this wouldn’t be the last time they were together on a court — that they had more ahead.
“I felt like we were as tight as we could be around him,” Haskell assistant coach Tarryn Hart said. “That felt significant. Like, ‘We’re here for you.’ We knew that wasn’t going to be the end for us.”
Haskell went on a 15-0 run into the fourth quarter, propelling the Lawrence, Kansas, program to a 57-52 win in the March 2 game held on its home court. That meant a third NAIA national tournament berth in four years under Strom.
That meant Haskell, one of only two federally funded colleges in America for Indigenous people, would dance in March once again. On Haskell’s active roster, 12 of the 14 players represent different tribes from states such as Kansas, North Dakota,…
