Gracelyn Nez named 2022 azcentral Female Athlete of the Year
Back in the summer of 2018, Tyrone Johnson had some convincing to do. Gracelyn Nez was entering her freshman year at Flagstaff and everyone knew, even then, that she would become one of the best volleyball players in school history.
“Early on, you could tell she was gonna be something special,” Flagstaff volleyball coach Beth Haglin said.
How early?
“At nine years old,” Haglin added.
Johnson saw something else: Nez could also be an elite basketball player. Even though she had never played the sport competitively, she dabbled in a few tournaments here and there and her combination of size, athleticism and coordination instantly shone through.
“She's just a natural athlete,” Johnson said.
Eventually, Johnson was able to convince Nez of the talent he saw in her.
She went on to play basketball all four years of high school, scoring 1,269 points and grabbing 763 rebounds. As a senior, she led Flagstaff to the 4A state championship game. Earlier that season, she became the first athlete in state history to record 1,000 career kills in volleyball and 1,000 points in basketball.
Now, she’s The Republic’s Girls Athlete of the Year.
Sitting in the crowd at ASU’s Gammage Auditorium on Saturday, Nez was surprised just to see her name among the nominees.
“I was like, oh, that's cool,” Nez said. “And then they said, you're the athlete of the year. And I was like — I was confused for a bit. Because I saw there's three rows full of athletes and for me to (win) is mind-blowing. It's crazy.”
Nez was also named to the All-Arizona team for both basketball and beach volleyball. Although she was not selected as the athlete of the year in either sport, her ability to excel in three sports — basketball, volleyball and beach volleyball — made her the state’s athlete of the year.
More: Arizona high school athletes honored by The Arizona Republic at awards event
Standing in front of the stage after the June 11 awards show at ASU Gammage Theater, Nez expressed gratitude toward Johnson for putting her on this path.
“I'm so happy,” Nez said when asked about her decision to play basketball. “The majority of my basketball credit goes to coach (Johnson). He built me into a player he wanted so all four years, I was coachable and I listened to what he said. Whatever he said, I did. He wanted me to run, I ran. He wanted me to shoot, I shot. He was a big part of my basketball career and I just want to say thank you to him.”
Nez’s on-court success isn’t the only reason she’s glad she picked up basketball.
“I made a lot of friends coming from sports,” Nez said. “I'm not really a talkative person. I don't go out there and introduce myself, which is bad, but me playing sports definitely helps me have more friendships and bonds with other people.”
The flip side is that Nez has hardly had a moment of free time over the past four years.
When volleyball makes the state tournament — as it did every year of Nez’s career — the season overlaps with basketball. Johnson would give her one day off, but then it was back to work.
Similarly, basketball leads right into beach volleyball. When that’s over, summer tournaments in both volleyball and basketball begin. Free time is not on the cards.
“It's crazy to think it's over now,” Nez said. “I get breaks. But other than that, it's pretty sad it's over.”
Graduation, though, isn’t the end of Nez’s sports journey. Next year, she’s heading to Glendale Community College to play volleyball and, potentially, basketball. While she had opportunities at bigger schools, Nez wanted to take two years to adjust to the demands of college athletics.
“I decided to start small and then maybe go bigger,” Nez said.
If there’s a lesson from the past four years, it’s that there’s no telling how big Nez’s future could be.
Theo Mackie covers Arizona high school sports and Phoenix Rising FC. He can be reached by email at theo.mackie@gannett.com and on Twitter @theo_mackie.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gracelyn Nez named 2022 azcentral Girls Athlete of the Year
