By Micheal Rios, Tulalip News
To fully appreciate the depths Mikail Montez has dug to maximize her lifetime of muscle memory meticulously tuned for the game of basketball and to capitalize on every second of collegiate court time, you have to know her journey. You have to know how opportunity can present itself in the face of unprecedented global upheaval, only to be struck down with devastating injury, and then present itself again in the form of a geoduck. Why a geoduck? Because they dig deep, of course.
Let us begin. It’s early 2019 and 18-year-old Mikail is not just a three-sport athlete and leading scorer for her high school basketball team, but she’s also the reigning Marysville Getchell senior class president. Her future is boundless. She’s full of anticipation and excitement to begin her next stage of student-athlete life at Arizona State University.
Then 2020 happens. A global pandemic sends us spiraling into social isolation, full on lockdowns in parts of the country, and a genuine fear of what could be next. Mikail is not immune from any of these 1,500 miles away from her reservation while still adjusting to life as a college freshman. So she makes the logical decision to return home.
“COVID happened during my winter quarter at Arizona State. After discussion with my parents, we agreed it was best for me to come back home,” recalled Mikail. “Eventually, all the fear and unknown started to fadeaway and the coach at Everett Community College reached out to me. Because of the pandemic and athletes returning home, they had lost like half their team and needed players. I jumped at the opportunity.
“Everett was a great experience. I was there for three years, but that first year, 2021, was probably the most memorable because it was a COVID season. The scheduling and whole dynamic about it was weird, but as a collective we came together for the love of the game and our love for each other. With everything happening in the world at that time and so many hurting from losing loved ones, that 2021 team found sanctuary on the basketball court. We were all we had. We went through a pandemic together and somehow managed to win our league championship.”
In 2022, Mikail’s on-court production reaches new heights as she begins to unlock all facets of her game. Now a fixture of Everett C.C.’s basketball program, she’s featured on both sides of the ball as both a bucket getter and lockdown defender. She starts in all 23 games that year, averages a double-double, and is awarded Everett’s Women’s Basketball Athlete of the Year.
Expectations are through the roof as the 2023 season is about to begin. When, suddenly, tragedy strikes.
“We’re up in Skagit playing in a tournament. I’m embracing being an upper classman now and a true leader of the team. I was ballin’…the game had slowed down for me, I was seeing the game in a whole new way, and just felt like I could get us 20 points every night. Then pop!” described the Tulalip hooper like only a hooper can. That pop was the sound of her Achilles tendon tearing. “I was going for a rebound when it happened and knew instantly what it was. I was absolutely heartbroken.”
Heartbroken, yes. Spirit broken, no. Having the game you love literally ripped from you is a career ender for many an athlete. Not this one. Mikail went through a grueling nine months of physical therapy. The then-21-year-old powered through a rigorous schedule of seemingly unless stretching, workouts, and more stretching necessary to render her Achilles to pre-injury form with one thought in mind – “I was determined to get back to that place of playing the best ball of my career. I knew my playing days weren’t over. My mantra for that time was Progress matters, not Pace.”
As her fortune would have it, the coaching staff of Evergreen State College had scouted Mikail during her peak at Everett C.C. and were well aware of the all-around skill set she possessed. It was a skill set they were willing to set aside a spot for on their women’s basketball team in the hopes she’d make a full recovery and continue her collegiate career in Olympia.
“Full transparency, I reached out to other colleges, too, seeing what my options were. I knew I could finish my degree anywhere, but I wanted to prove I could still hoop while doing it. Of all the colleges I reached out to, only Evergreen got back to me,” admitted Mikail. “I took that as a sign and opted to play where I was wanted for a coaching staff who knew what I was capable of.”
She returned to the court during Evergreen’s 2023-2024 season where she saw action in 20 games, including one start. With her minutes limited and role relegated to a bench player as she learned a new system, she averaged just shy of 3 points and 3 rebounds a game. A far cry from the double-double machine she was at Marysville Getchell High School and Everett Community College.
This is where the geoduck comes into play. For the uninformed, the geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) is the world’s largest burrowing clam, has an average lifespan of 140 years, is most commonly found in Coast Salish waters, and is Evergreen College’s official mascot. Oh, and the word geoduck comes from the English language’s attempt to pronounce γʷιδəθ, which is Lushootseed for “dig deep”. Because that’s what geoduck do, they dig deep.
Mikail embraced the geoduck as her defacto spirit animal for the 2024-2025 season and, in doing so, summons every ounce of strength in her five-foot-eleven-inch frame to dig deep every game, every quarter, and every minute she gets on the hardwood. She’s a fifth-year college senior set to graduate in June with her Bachelor’s Degree. There is no next season.
Digging deep, the Evergreen forward/center has regained her status as full-time starter and perennial bucket getter. She’s rebounded from last year’s statistically down season by averaging nearly 10 points and 5 rebounds per game. Most importantly, her body is healed completely from the Achilles injury, which has allowed her to regain her confidence to battle with other bigs in the post. Something the Evergreen coaching staff were quick to implement into their offensive game plan.
“Mikail is dedicated to her craft in a way that coaches of any level would love to have an opportunity to coach,” explained Evergreen College head coach Derrick Pringle. “She’s methodical, hardworking, and, best of all, she loves the game. We offer optional Saturday practices and she’s always there, busting her butt for two hours and going home soaking wet with a smile on her face.
“When I first got here, I thought she was a wing player. But I learned quick after she told me ‘Coach, I can play the wing, but I like to bang a little bit’. Mikail’s ability to score inside from the post and outside with her 3-point touch is what makes her different as a player. Everyone wants to shoot the 3 ball and, if you look around, almost everyone does these days. But not everyone can score in the post. In fact, it’s probably the rarest of skills these days for a player to possess the patience, footwork, and physicality necessary to score so effortlessly in the post like she does.”
Her full arsenal of back-to-the-basket moves and sweet shooting touch were on full display in a mid-January matchup with the College of Idaho. A back and forth game full of all the excitement one could ask for from a basketball game, Mikail was a fixture of reliability for her fellow Evergreen teammates. In the game’s most pressure-filled moments, Mikail stayed cool, calm, and confident in her ability to score on one end and come up with a defensive stop on the other.
In a thrilling 55-52 victory, Mikail amassed a stat line of 21-points (a season high), 8 rebounds (a season high), and 3 assists. She shot 9-13 from the field and was 2-3 on 3-pointers. “That stats are cool, but even better is the win,” said Mikail post-victory. “I felt like I was my best self out there tonight. Having the trust of teammates and coaches to have the ball in my hands with the game on the line is every basketball player dream. I’ve visualized and practiced those moments thousands of times…what I’d do to get to my spots, my footwork, my form on the shots.”
In her final season as a collegiate athlete, the now 23-year-old has regained her final form as a basketball player that the Achilles injury attempted to take from her. She’s also found the home away from home community at Evergreen College that COVID once denied her from finding at Arizona State. It’s because of those challenges and setbacks that her family so eagerly make the drive from Tulalip to the Olympia-based campus to watch their favorite baller get buckets.
“It’s great to see a tribal kid flourish off the reservation while doing her thing on the Division III level. Mikail is proud of her roots and always putting on for Tulalip wherever she goes,” shared Nathan Williams, one of Mikail’s older brothers, who regularly attends games with his 2-year-old son Winter. “Legacy and tradition are the most important things to our family, which is why it’s a priority to have my son here so he can experience the environment while his aunt is on the court getting buckets.
“The confidence in her skill is what sets her apart,” he added. “She put in a lot of time, countless early mornings and late nights, to reach that level of confidence. Plus, she had three older brothers who played and a former pro player in our household that was able to show her elite level footwork and shooting form. Mikail took the skill and athleticism our family is known for and carved out her own basketball journey. Among us siblings, she took her love for the game the furthest. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Mikail’s journey in basketball is more than just personal triumph. Her journey is one of balancing cultural heritage, academics, and athletics that all Tulalip youth should hear about or read about. Because her story is their story. To learn from, to be inspired by, and to serve as a reminder, whenever needed, that there are going to be times when the odds are long and the whole world seems like its against you. In order to persevere, you gotta dig deep.