Upamanyu Biswas
The Netflix sports drama film ‘Rez Ball‘ depicts the highs and lows of the Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team in New Mexico, who face internal challenges after their star player passes away. Subsequently, the team has to unite and hash out their differences as they attempt to compete for the state championship. Their season hits rock bottom when they play against the Santa Fe Catholic Coyotes, who resoundingly defeat them with the aid of their star athlete, Mason Troy. The loss sparks a rivalry between the Warriors and the Coyotes that remains significant until the movie’s final moments!
The Santa Fe Catholic Coyotes’ Ties With Reality Are Minimal
‘Rez Ball’ is a fictional film partially based on Michael Powell’s non-fiction book ‘Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation.’ Even though the primary inspiration behind the movie is Powell’s accounts, director Sydney Freeland and co-writer Sterlin Harjo wrote the storylines as original creations. As such, the Santa Fe Catholic Coyotes are a fictional team conceived by the two screenwriters without an exact real-life counterpart. However, a rivalry similar to the one between the Coyotes and the Warriors is present in the source text between the Page Sand Devils and the Chinle Wildcats, the real-life equivalent to Chuska’s stars.
As documented by Powell, the Page Sand Devils were the bogey team for the Chinle Wildcats, having defeated them several times over the years. Powell wrote, “The Page Sand Devils had bewitched the Wildcats over the years; this past December, they had beaten the Wildcats in Chinle in overtime, a loss that caused Angelo to stomp in disgust with himself and ask how he could have fouled so much and so stupidly and why he could not get his shooting untracked.” This particular loss can be paralleled with the Warriors’ embarrassing defeat to the Coyotes.
However, while the rivalry may seem rooted in reality, differences arise elsewhere. The movie depicts the Chuska Warriors coming up against their formidable foes, the Coyotes, in the final game of the state championship. In reality, the Wildcats never reached the finals and came up short against the Winslow Bulldogs, a predominantly Navajo team. Powell described the contest as a match between two very similar teams. He wrote, “So much about the Bulldogs was familiar—their lack of height, their endurance, the pleasure taken in a pass, and their quiet intensity. It was as if Chinle had met its doppelgänger.”
In the film, something similar happens when the Warriors go up against the Coyotes in the final. They discover that the tactics and strategies of their rivals are based on their own. However, the Coyotes have a predominantly non-Native American team, which separates it from the Bulldogs. Still, the Santa Fe Catholic Coyotes can be viewed as an amalgamation of the various opponents the Wildcats came up against during the 2017-18 season while not being based on any one team in particular.
Mason Troy is a Basketball Star Created by Freeland and Harjo
While the Chuska Warriors battle against the Santa Fe Catholic Coyotes multiple times in the movie, a more individual rivalry is set in motion between the players, primarily between Jimmy Holiday and the star of the Coyotes, Mason Troy. The character is entirely fictional and was created by Sydney Freeland and Sterlin Harjo. In reality, most of the Wildcats’ rivalries were against teams rather than an individual. At times, animosity was directed towards the Page Sand Devils or other teams they faced during the season, but no players were particularly singled out. Therefore, Mason can be viewed as a fictional aspect of the story, designed to integrate a sense of competitiveness into Jimmy.
During pre-match interviews, Troy is often disparaging or dismissive of the fight put up by the Warriors. Such blatant displays of arrogance only heighten the stakes of the battle between the Warriors and Coyotes and provide a dramatic outlet to the story. Troy is also considered one of the best prospects in the high school league, thereby creating a shift in the power dynamics between Jimmy and him. Narratively, the character makes a prominent impression as a somewhat antagonistic force, but he cannot be found in reality.
Read More: Rez Ball: Is Heather Hobbs Based on a Real Basketball Coach?
