- Running has its roots in the creation of the universe.

Our elders tell our young people to run early in the morning.

We call it... [speaking native language] "greeting the sunrise."

Running includes not just physical health, but also spiritual and mental health in order to endure.

- Lick your finger.

A little bit on the right side, first.

Think good thoughts, confidence.

It's for protection, for strength.

- The middle mile's where most of the action happens, and then the last mile is all about guts.

- In the world of running, there's no way you can compare, unless you race.

The same day, the same course, step on the same line, and let's go.

[whistle shrills] [gun fires] [crowd cheering] - Running is, like, part of my religion.

- It's part of my Hopi tradition.

- Navajos are just natural-born runners.

[crowd cheering] - Sweet!

Oh, my gosh, it's close.

[cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] - To attain something good, there's always something in the way that we have to overcome.

[horse whinnying] Life on the reservation, it can be very tough.

- When I run, it's like a stress reliever.

Like, you just get away from everything, don't have to worry about anything at home.

- Getting out there into nature, where it's calm, where I can let my mind wander, keep myself out of trouble.

- I don't really like the rez too much, but I think we should get a little more respect.

Definitely, the teams off the rez get, like, way more respect, for some reason.

Maybe it's just 'cause we're kind of, like, out in the middle of nowhere.

- We are going to begin today with our weekly awards.

I'm giving out a lot of bling today.

Let's start with Mr. Herschel Lester: 33-second improvement.

Ryan Yazzie went from fast to even faster.

He took 59 seconds off his finish from last year.

Billy Orman wasn't satisfied with just a minute.

He took a minute and 18 off.

You can keep the purple ones.

[laughter] - Yes.

- We have to work hard.

But if we work hard, we can beat anybody.

We've got time to get faster, but they do too.

We got to work a little harder than everyone else.

Set, go!

- It's freaking crazy.

I can't believe I'm a state champ.

It's awesome.

I'm ready for this season.

I'm ready to give it all I got.

We can have an incredible team this year.

- How many people would like to win a 20th state title for Tuba City?

Remember that.

Today is August 21st.

You need to want to win it today.

If you decide to want to win it the day of the state meet, it's too late.

Stride it!

I hope we can win the state championship again.

I would love to have back-to-back state championships.

I'm expecting the competition to be pretty strong this year.

On paper, Chinle has a stronger team than us, by a good margin.

They finished second to us last year, and they didn't run their number one runner.

- This point in the season, we got to start training for one thing.

It's not the state meet.

It's training your body to overcome that point of weakness in the race.

Ready, go!

Should I slow down now, or keep pushing?

Get through that barrier.

Ready, go!

You got to be able to push through that point.

Let's go, guys!

This will be my fifth season here.

My third year, the boys got second at state.

And then last year, they were second again.

So a lot of them keep saying the only way to go now is that number one spot: the state title.

- I want to win the state this year.

Don't want to get runner-up anymore.

[chuckles] Getting tired of that.

This year, hopefully I finish top five at state.

- Johnny's talent level is amazing.

He's one part of a crucial team that could make a real run at a state title this year and not be a bridesmaid for the fourth year in a row.

Tuba City's boys have got some young guys that are very talented.

Ryan Yazzie, he's an amazing talent.

He just doesn't even know how talented he is.

- This one, I got that my sophomore year.

This one was from last year.

I don't remember getting this, though.

"All-region team."

An old coach mentioned to me that with the kick that I have, I can, like, probably make it to the Olympics.

And I was like, "Whoa, that would be awesome."

It's something to think that if I work really hard at it, I can make it that far.

I'm hoping to get a scholarship, so I'd be, like, the first Yazzie to go to college.

- Everyone, look over here.

[speaking native language] How would you say that in English?

- Today is Moccasin Day.

- Moccasin Day.

In the 1800s, it was grandfather's job... [speaking native language] It was his job in the family to make shoes for all the family.

- Last year, I was like, "Whoa, I came in first for Chinle varsity."

Everyone was like, "Oh, good job, freshman."

They started calling me Johnny Lightning, Johnny Flash.

- He did really good.

I'm proud of him.

I don't know where he got his legs from.

Maybe from his dad.

I don't know.

She's in cross-country too.

She keeps up with him.

- Yeah, if I weren't running, I would have been getting in a lot of trouble.

My dad left during the summer before my freshman year.

He left me, my four sisters, my brother, my mom.

He left us.

The cross-country team, I think of them as my family.

Good job.

Good job.

They'll always tell me to go to class on time.

They all have my back and everything.

They take care of me.

Good job.

- So workout today: we're going up to T.C.

Hill.

This is one of the most painful and rewarding workouts of the season.

[all moaning] We have to use some humility today.

We're going to ask permission of the mountain to train, and then we're going to have a good workout.

[shouting] Oh, mighty mountain of misery and pain, we are the warriors, and we have come to prepare for battle.

all: We are the warriors, and we have come to prepare for battle.

- We kindly ask your permission to train on your mighty flanks, on this beautiful afternoon.

all: Uh... [laughter] - When the enemies return for battle, we ask that you carry us lightly and swiftly up your mighty ramparts and cast our enemies down in defeat.

Set, go!

[lively guitar music] ♪ ♪ The big schools in Phoenix, they tend to run on golf courses.

Set, go!

We run in a lot of sand.

We're running in this, you know?

Go!

We're getting stronger running in the sand, and mentally tougher.

Got 'em!

Both Ryan and Billy, they can compete with any top two in the state.

Billy had a great summer.

He was up to 60 miles a week in the off-season.

- When I go running, I definitely think about my future more.

Mostly about scholarships and stuff.

I'm half white and half Puerto Rican.

I'm not Native at all.

I have Hopi friends.

I have Navajo friends.

I'm, like, brown, just like them.

[laughs] This place around here is pretty screwed up-- alcohol, drugs.

Running is a way of helping me escape.

Harvard.

I'm filling out a recruiting questionnaire for Harvard.

Search, "Athletics."

- What if you go to Harvard and flunk out?

- Then I could say I was a Harvard dropout.

[both laugh] - I'm Billy Orman's dad.

Lived here in Tuba City for 15 years.

And I'm a pediatrician at the local Indian Health Service hospital.

Billy's very much his own man, I think.

He's a pretty levelheaded kid.

- Of course I'd like to go to a good school.

- Would you rather go to a good academic school or a hard-core running-- - A good academic school.

- As far as Billy returning to the reservation, I honestly don't see him coming back.

I'd be very surprised.

- Tomorrow is our home meet.

So going to get ready for it right now.

I want to see, at the end of the day, where we stack up compared to Tuba City.

- Cross-country is much more of a team sport than people realize.

The top five members of a cross-country team score points.

First place is one point.

Second place is two points.

Low score wins.

You have to have five guys that are at least matched with the five guys of the team you're up against.

Our one needs to beat their one.

And our two needs to beat their two.

Our number three man needs to beat Chinle's number three man.

It's very easy for one slow member in the top five, being far enough behind, to erase the advantage you have from having a great one-two.

[engine revving] Jog the whole course.

Be aware of where you are in the course so you can run your race.

- Keep everything tight.

Keep groups together.

You should know where you want to be racing.

Let's just go have fun at our home meet.

[gun fires] [crowd cheering] This hill is called, "The Breaker," because if you're not in good shape, it's gonna break you.

[crowd cheering] - Good job, get 'em!

- Way to go, man.

Way to go.

Good pace, man.

Good pace.

- Let's go, Chinle!

Let's go, Chinle.

- Come on, man.

- [grunting] [cheers and applause] - Finishing in 16:26, shatters the course record by a minute and ten seconds.

- Come on, Johnny.

[cheers and applause] - How you feeling, kid?

- Good.

- It sucked.

- Anything different about this race?

- The obvious difference is that Billy's ahead of Ryan this year.

Ryan is as fast as he was last year, but he just doesn't look as fast, because Billy has really improved.

- And this year's individual varsity boy's champion, Billy Orman, from Tuba City.

[cheers and applause] Awesome run today.

Awesome.

- Billy!

- I feel good.

I broke the course record by maybe a minute or so.

- This year's team runner-up award goes to the Chinle Wildcats with a score of 69 points.

With a score of 41 points, this year's team champions, Tuba City Warriors.

[cheers and applause] In general, I thought it went well.

Tuba ran tough as crap.

Um, so we'll see where it goes from here.

- Dennis Klain ran a great race.

There are a bunch of guys that he's beaten three times this year, on Chinle's team, that he's never beaten before, going back to seventh grade.

He's made a big breakthrough.

- I feel good.

Probably my best race so far.

- We have 13 in our family.

We all ran.

We all ran for Tuba City High School.

He's really good at what he does.

Straight-A student, honor roll student.

A B is like a bad grade to him.

[laughs] - A B is like an F to me.

- Yes.

- I got a B in one of them, so that ruined my 4.0, and then I got a 3.9.

So I was kind of-- I kind of felt bad that it was, like, all for nothing.

- If I was told I had to have a whole team of one guy, I could pick anyone on the team, it would probably be Dennis.

He's a great student.

He's super smart.

He has a great sense of humor.

- Growing up so much.

[laughter] - Hey, you got to send that picture to me.

- And he works really hard.

He's not the most talented runner on the team, but everything he's achieved is through pure hard work.

He's everything a coach could want.

Good.

- Joining cross-country made me feel that-- that I'm someone.

[laughs] If I'm running, a lot of the times I think about food, because after those long runs, you're just real hungry, and you just want to eat.

[laughs] I was the second runner at state last year.

It was, like, one of the best races of my life.

But coming in second for four years, it gets old after a while.

And it makes you-- makes you hunger for that state championship more.

- If the team had a heart, I think the main pulse would come from Koyai.

I think he's a trendsetter.

He's a leader on the team.

Without him, it would be very, very difficult to make a real run at a state title this year.

Where's all the guys at?

Are they seriously not here, 'cause it's a workout?

We had our first workout scheduled today.

Now we're not even going to do it, because the bulk of the team's not even here.

Which pisses me off, because that sets us a week behind everybody else.

Those guys that aren't here today, they're not gonna be here very long if they're not gonna take this serious.

Go run.

Go, go, go, go.

Get out of here.

Run, run, run.

- On September 8th, my brother passed away.

We just found him in his room.

Scared me a lot, seeing him laying there.

He got injured on a job.

He cut his leg with a Skil saw.

And the doctor gave him pills, and he was taking those.

And I guess he was feeling a lot of pain, and he got more pills, so he was taking more than he was supposed to.

And I guess it was just, like, an accidental overdose.

He was my older brother, and he was 27 years old.

I had a great relationship with him, 'cause we used to play basketball a lot, outside, but now there's nothing to do around my house.

Running has helped with my brother and kind of helped get things off my mind, so I wouldn't think about it as much.

I know it's bad to forget him, but I just kind of don't want to remember how I last saw him.

I miss him a lot.

- Morning stretch.

Morning stretch.

Haven't stretched you yet.

Mmm, ahh.

It's a Navajo tradition to stretch out your baby every morning and think good thoughts while you're doing it.

Think about the man you want him to become.

So we do it every morning, usually on the changing table.

We're gonna have a team meeting here, pretty soon, put everything out on the table and talk about where we're at, what we need to do if we want to even have a chance at getting a title.

We got guys not showing up.

We got guys failing.

We got guys not doing what they should be doing if we do want to chase a state title.

Individually, I'm gonna call people out.

Johnny: getting lazy.

Joey: doing the work, but needs to get on the ball a little more.

Koyai: stay away from the distractions.

If we just keep doing what we're doing, and we just keep things real easy, real light, and we just worry about getting through this season, we'll get a second-place trophy at state, if that's our goal.

But it's up to you guys if you want to close the gap and even try to go after a team like Tuba City at the state championships.

Listen up.

We're going six to eight times this hill.

Hills are a win-win situation.

You're getting the strength out of it, and you're doing the speed, 'cause it takes power to get up.

Go!

Johnny, what do we need to do?

- Koyai?

- We're closer to Tuba City than we were last year at this point in the season.

- He's right, though.

Look at a team like Tuba City.

We got the best chance of beating them.

They may have the two best runners in the state right now.

But you can have the two best runners in the state.

If you don't have another three guys after that, you got nothing.

No other team in our region has a chance at beating them, except us.

- Ahh!

Whoo!

- Get it, guys.

Get it!

- I grew up here.

I have a big family, live all around here.

My uncle and his whole family lives just right over there.

My other uncle lives just right here.

And my grandma and my uncle live down in that blue trailer.

- I told him, "You should catch a butterfly and put it on your leg.

You can run fast that way.

[laughter] That's what the Navajos used to do a long time ago.

If you want to be a fast runner, you have to get up early in the morning, before the sun comes up, and you have to run.

That's the only way you'll be a good runner.

- Game on!

- Game on!

- What you find here, in places, on the reservation, you find families that are really into running, and they push the running aspect of the traditional lifestyle.

- Go!

- These families turn out some runners that have been running since they could walk.

- Run, run!

- Most of the rest of America, we value the other team sports far above cross-country.

But out here, they know what cross-country is, and they know what it takes to be a distance runner.

69, 70.

- In the Navajo culture, running started out as a form of communication, as a form of well-being, as a rite of passage, to harden yourself mentally and physically, and prepare yourself for life.

That's what running is to our culture.

- Running's not always fun.

You got to be able to tell yourself to keep going even though you're real tired.

- This is what cross-country's about, pain.

- I can't breathe.

- Ryan really pushes me.

A lot of other runners say, "Man, you're so lucky you have a teammate to run with and push you and stuff," you know?

Yeah, I guess.

I don't really know.

I don't like competing with a teammate.

It feels weird.

[cheers and applause] - Here's your runner-up, from Tuba City High School, Billy Orman.

[cheers and applause] - I think I could have done better, but... - Last year, with you and Ryan going one-two in everything, I mean, you passed him, obviously, today.

I mean, do you feel like you're right with him now, or maybe a little ahead of him?

- I think it's still a little early in the season to really say anything for sure.

- All right, we've had a bunch of new media attention in the last 24 hours.

The Navajo Times had a story on the invite yesterday, a nice little story.

Oh, come on, Ryan.

- They mentioned you too.

Mentioned "Yazzie" a lot-- Johnathan Yazzie.

[laughter] Come on, Ryan.

- It's over, my season.

- Ryan, you're a champion.

There's no one in Arizona with more titles than you have.

Where's the, "He's got to go through me to get that title"?

Come on!

- No.

- You got to say that.

"He's got to go through me."

- He already did.

[laughter] [sheep bleating] When I go running in the morning, I just come outside and feed the lambs and water them.

Then I take off.

My dad never got to see me run.

He wasn't really always here.

I used to send the articles I was in to him.

He died two summers ago.

Another reason why not to do drugs.

But the time that I spent with him, I cherished it.

- When he was in junior high, I did not expect that he would finish school.

And when he started running, he changed.

He changed, and he wanted to be-- he wanted to be somebody.

- I just wanted to check in with you on, like, dates and things that Ryan and any other senior-- we got four seniors on the team this year.

Ryan is the one who is--has the potential to be recruited by Division I programs, virtually any program in the country.

He's that kind of talent.

- The first step is the A.C.T.

or S.A.T.

's, and then see what his scores are.

- To get recruited by Division I schools, you have to take one of those tests, either the A.C.T.

or the S.A.T.

And he's scared to death.

I don't think he tests well, and he's afraid to sign up.

- I don't know how I would adjust from high school to, like, a college.

I probably will need a lot of, like, tutoring for some classes.

- The thing I think Ryan can benefit is having a one-on-one, personal contact with the professor.

- He needs goals.

Once he has a goal, he goes for it, whether it's academic or athletic.

And he, so far, has achieved them.

You were pretty bummed out yesterday.

I'm sure there's some disappointment, but even if you are number two on the team, it doesn't mean you're off track on your long-term goals.

You're still the defending AAA state champ in cross-country and multiple events in track.

I'm sure it's not just finishing behind Billy, but you got next year to worry about.

But today, just worry about this race.

- Okay.

- Yesterday I was running, and I tripped on my shoelace and fell on my left knee.

It's a little swollen, I think, but not really.

It just hurts.

- What'd you do to Billy, man?

- Yeah, he fell on the pavement yesterday.

- He busted his knee up?

What did he hit, his front, side?

- The kneecap.

- The cap, oh.

- Yep.

- It's not looking very good for him to be able to run.

- It's all swollen and fluid and stuff.

- All right, run your race.

It's your day.

- Spot Dennis from the very beginning, and see what he can do today.

Every day is purely practice.

Get our number five with their number three, okay?

- Here we go.

Come on!

- Gentlemen, take your marks.

[gun fires] [cheers and applause] - Here you go, Johnny.

- Stay ahead of him, Joe.

Voila, there it is.

There you go, Joey.

That's it, Koyai.

Varsity boys, first time in four years we've beat Tuba.

You guys got on the ball and did exactly what you needed to do, spotted Dennis, got on him from the beginning, and hung with him.

Big-time progression, big performance.

We're moving in the right direction, for sure.

- Ryan, my man.

- It was weird running by myself.

I just wish Billy was there.

Shh.

- Hey, don't move.

- [laughing] - Hey, Ryan.

Ryan, this is the coach at Central Arizona.

- How you doing?

Good job today.

We're a junior college, and our guys' cross-country team consistently finishes top four every year at nationals.

We had eight kids in the Olympics last year.

- Okay, that's good.

- So right now, we'd be able to pay your tuition.

Academics come first.

The bottom line is, we want you to get an education, get a degree, and move on, 'cause you can't run forever.

Do you have any questions at all?

- I can see he's embarrassed by the pink nail polish someone put on him.

- It's all right.

Don't worry.

My big concern is you work hard, and you go to classes.

That's my main concern.

If you want to wear pink nail polish, that's fine by me.

- Nothing wrong with having fun.

[laughter] - Nothing wrong with having fun.

- Last year, I felt kind of sad, 'cause I didn't run at state my freshman year.

I was doing pretty good during the first half of the season, till I got an injury, and I couldn't run anymore.

I, like, pulled a muscle.

This year, hopefully I run in state.

I see that it's foul.

Right now, like, I'm going through a lot of stuff that gets to me during my running.

Problems with my dad.

He calls me when he's drunk and stuff.

He lies.

He does all that to me, but I still care about him, still love him.

He's still my dad.

- Dennis is having a great season, and he hasn't had an easy six months, that's for sure.

His older brother died on Labor Day.

I'm shocked at how well he's handling it.

And part of the reason why he's doing okay is 'cause he has a girlfriend.

There's nothing like a girlfriend in high school to lift your spirits.

[indistinct conversation] - April has affected my season a lot.

I hang out with her a lot now, 'cause there's no one around here.

My dad works.

My mom is at work.

When I come home, there's no one home.

I don't really talk to my family as much, so I talk to her.

I can tell her anything.

Helps a lot knowing that she cares.

- We're going to run 400s.

One lap is 400 meters.

We will run a lap hard, jog a lap easy.

Set, go!

- Not having Billy there in practice or workouts pretty much sucks.

Like, he's the energy of the team, always smiling and making us laugh.

- 67, 68.

There was a noticeable improvement in Ryan's performance at the meet on Saturday.

Mentally, I think it was important for Ryan to be able to race last Saturday without Billy there.

I don't think he really started to train hard until Billy thoroughly throttled him.

He's just hitting his stride now.

This is lousy for your health.

We're done.

Ryan, you'll run better on Friday without doing this 58, whatever you were gonna run.

- Okay, I don't see anything on there.

Let's go check you out.

All right, bend up all the way, Billy.

- Ahh.

- The orthopedist felt like the most likely thing that is going on was just a bruising of his kneecap.

He gave Billy some instructions to not run on the knee.

- 64.

- I think it's just wait and see.

- 66, 67.

- The Chinle's ship is rising, and the Warrior's is sinking.

- Aww.

- Even if Billy had run, we would have lost to Chinle at Four Corners.

[laughter] Can we right the good ship Warrior before it sinks?

Yes, but we have to break up this pack.

Right here is Koyai Clauschee, this guy.

Chinle is on the move.

They are looking good.

They've got a tight pack.

They've got a true number one.

- 42!

- It's gonna be awfully tough to beat them.

You guys got to learn who these guys are, know where they are in the race, and learn how to control a race.

If you want it, we got a whole half season to catch back up to Chinle.

They are in the driver's seat.

- Altitude training is all about less oxygen.

Ready, go!

The less oxygen that you've got, the more your liver says, "I need more oxygen."

So by getting this workout in, up here, today, you have more blood cells that carry the oxygen, and when we go down to Phoenix, there is more oxygen, so you're getting, like, a double advantage effect.

Go!

This weekend is Doug Conley-- top 20 teams in the state, regardless of class.

It'll hopefully prepare them a little bit more for state.

- You hurting somewhere?

Shins?

- What?

This is Conley.

What are you talking about?

If you don't go, there's no point in the team going.

Johnny has his days where he's on, and there's other days where he's off.

Today is one of his off days.

He just can't focus.

I think 100% of his little aches and pains come from not doing the small things.

If he was doing the warm-ups, if he was doing the cooldowns, he wouldn't have any problems right now.

But he's not doing those, and that's why the pain comes.

You know, he's just got to get tough mentally, and he wouldn't lose focus like he is losing now.

- Blah, I don't want to run.

I don't feel like running.

I don't really know what's holding me back.

I think I've got, like, too much on my mind.

They found my dad.

I thought he was going to be sober and everything, but I guess he was drunk.

He was lying to me.

He was like, "I trained you.

I trained you for the whole summer when you were small."

That was the thing.

He never did that.

You weren't there for me.

But you were never there for me.

- I'd like to welcome you to the Tempe Rolling Hills Golf Course, for the 37th annual Doug Conley invitational.

- I'm running, but since I haven't been running for, like, two weeks, coach said to stay with Dennis and not go too hard.

I'm sort of excited to run, but kind of scared, because I don't want to injure something else.

- Less than ten minutes to the start.

- Do it on the line!

No discipline.

Go, go, go.

Do it on the line.

You should have been doing this an hour ago.

Got to the line like a minute before the gun goes off, with zero warm-up.

- Gentlemen, take your marks.

[gun fires] [crowd cheering] - Koyai is not in it one bit.

Look at him.

Koyai is out the back door already, shoot.

Circuit left, Joey.

Come on, get tough now.

- Here we come.

Jorge Martinez, Rex Woodbury, Billy Orman.

Angel Camargo from Sunnyside.

- Did you guys see Johnny running with no-- with only one shoe?

He was running with one shoe.

It, like, fell off.

- Billy was, like, sixth or seventh.

- Really?

What?

- I'll be pleased if Billy is walking tomorrow, 'cause he didn't quite follow the race plan, but he did good.

- Ran like crap today.

Prepared like crap, so we ran like crap.

I do not want to run a race not prepared.

I almost pulled you guys off the line.

Some of you didn't get in the race from the beginning, because your body wasn't warmed up and prepared.

Somebody has to be a leader on this team.

You can't have a bunch of Indians and no chief.

The natural leader on this team is Koyai.

Whatever Koyai does, all the little roosters run behind him.

His hat's on backwards.

He turns his backwards.

He turns his backwards.

He turns his backwards.

The leader's got to come from you.

You got to make sure these guys do all the small things to be 100% ready.

And, in the end, big trophies come out of that success.

- Just chopping some wood for my grandma.

It's for my 18th birthday.

Finally an adult.

[laughs] Scary, at the same time.

I mean, now I'm on my own after school's over.

Right now I'm looking at some colleges to try and get a scholarship for basketball, see where that takes me from there.

But for sure I want to go to college.

- Awesome day for everybody.

Main thing is, we did what we needed to do today.

We're right there, guys.

- Chinle's looking more ready every week.

- They're close.

And they share hair product.

[laughter] - Let's go, let's go.

We're late.

It gets dark early.

If you guys think you can just show up Saturday and win the state meet, you're wrong.

We got work to do.

We've got to take it seriously.

It's 15 minutes late for practice.

- We got a half mile left of work of the season, and that's it.

Ready, go.

My goal for them for the season is to walk out of the parking lot after the state meet is done knowing that they did everything they could, all season long, to prepare themselves for that one race, that last 3.1 miles.

Damn, Koyai.

[clapping] Koyai, you're ready, man.

- Too fast.

37, 38, 39.

It's even odds, I would say, of who's gonna take state... - Awesome day.

- Chinle or us.

- If you run the first half smart and you run the second half with courage, one stride past that finish line, you will do something today you will be proud of the rest of your lives.

- We started this four months ago.

For four months we've trained to suppress that point where you question yourself.

When that point in the race comes, rely on your strength.

- Let's go, boys.

Today is our day.

Let's go do this.

"Warriors" on three.

all: One, two, three, Warriors!

- What we got to do?

all: Believe, believe, believe!

[crowd cheering] [gun fires] [crowd cheering] - Everyone took it out hard.

400 meters into it, I took the lead and started pushing the pace.

- I went out in good position, but, like, as the race went on, I kept falling back more and more.

- First mile, I think I took that too fast.

I was battling for at least fourth place.

- After we passed a mile, the only one I saw was Johnathan, all I was trying to catch, 'cause I never really beat him, and I wanted to.

- All of us were right there, just together.

I tried to keep myself with Herschel the whole way.

- I was still in the lead.

I didn't look back, or I didn't hear anyone, because I was so caught up in my own race.

- At the halfway point, it looked like we had a nice lead.

We had three guys in the top six, and they only had one.

- We got 'em, Koyai.

Hook it up!

Hook it up, Koyai.

- But it was a false impression.

We were, in fact, losing at the halfway point.

- After I passed the two-mile, the heat got to me.

I couldn't breathe.

- Let's go, Johnny!

Then guys started passing me.

- He was wobbling all over the place.

- I got dizzy, started seeing black dots or something.

Then I ran off the course.

- I didn't know if he would even finish the race.

At that point, he was our fifth man.

So I was like, "Johnny, you got two minutes.

"Two minutes of work left.

Let's go.

Try to just pull it together."

- Then I heard my coach say, "Two minutes left."

- Somehow, that "Two minutes to go" got through to him.

- I thought about, like, it's time to feel the pain.

Took off.

Caught Koyai.

Koyai thought, "Let's go.

Let's do this."

- I could see Ryan, and he wasn't, like, pulling away from me.

He was getting closer, so I knew something was wrong with Ryan.

- Every time I would try to go faster, I couldn't.

I just felt like I wasn't race-ready.

- That second mile came, and we could just hear Herschel breathing all hard.

- Come on, guys.

Come on.

- There's Billy.

[upbeat rock music] ♪ ♪ - Felt good to be state champ, finally.

- Come on, Ryan.

Go, Ryan!

Come on, Ryan!

- I was disappointed in my time.

I was, like, slower than my sophomore year's time.

- Dennis!

- When I hit the last straightaway, Johnathan passed me.

- I was focusing on the finish line to finish the race.

I realized I was going faster and faster.

- I was so close, and he beat me by, like, four seconds.

- Then I crossed the line and fell over.

- At the end, I just felt like I had nothing at all.

- In the end, I knew it was gonna come down to Tuba's fifth man.

That person was either gonna win it or lose it for them.

- Congratulations, Billy.

You deserve that.

You earned it.

- Ohh.

- [coughing] - Yeah!

- I almost beat Johnathan.

- I heard, "Two minutes," and I took off.

Two minutes of hell.

- You got to be happy with that, guys.

That was the best race I've seen in a long time.

It's gonna be a matter of points.

- Could have done a lot better.

- You know what?

I lost my New England championships my senior year, and that probably keeps me running to this day.

A loss can be good for your future.

- And with 55 points, your AAA state runner-up, these are the Wildcats of Chinle.

55 points.

[cheers and applause] So Tuba, this is their third straight and 20th total state championship.

- Congrats, man.

[cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] - If there's something you learned from cross-country, I hope one of them is that you set no limits for yourself, because each and every one of you can do whatever you want in life if you put your mind to it.

I know a lot of people on this team didn't picture themselves as champion athletes and have no idea how talented you are.

[cheers and applause] [horn honking] - I get emotional, because this sport requires dedication.

And I haven't been more proud of a boys' team than this year's.

Because it says "Runner-up" doesn't mean nothing.

What matters is it means you did what we came to do, and that lesson's gonna stay with you the rest of your life.

And I'm just glad to be your coach.

[applause] [cheers and applause] - Ryan Yazzie.

[cheers and applause] - I decided to go to Central Arizona College.

They gave me a scholarship for two years.

I'm gonna miss Perry and his motivational talks.

I don't know, I'll probably have to start calling him every night when I'm down at school.

- The flight was all right.

I'm still alive.

- No, it's my first time.

I'm probably gonna drive back.

Just kidding.

all: Wings!

[gun fires] - To be part of Wings seems like an honor that I'm running for the Navajo Reservation.

Running kind of has changed my life.

I never thought I would get this far.

- He did an awesome job.

I'm proud of him.

- One, two, three.

man.

[cheers and applause] [gun fires] - To be luck enough to have someone as gifted as Billy in the few years that I coached, it's magical.

- Didn't get top five, but I got top six.

- He's gonna be a great influence for a long time.

I think a lot of people want to become the next Billy Orman on the rez.

- I didn't realize people cared that much.

I feel honored.

- Oh, man.

He was talking to me along the way, saying, "You'll see everything differently, "and all you got to do is keep your head up and smile, say, 'Hi.'"

[laughing] [gun fires] [cheers and applause] - Ever since he started running, he's just been a totally different person.

He's motivated.

He wants to be an Olympian.

I hope he does not come back to the reservation.

I want him to go on and be somebody.

- I'm surprised I made it this far this soon, and I'm just thinking this is the beginning of a new era for me.

male announcer: For more information about this program, visit us online at: female announcer: This program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting