The Notah Begay III Foundation is a national, award-winning nonprofit organization whose focus is improving the health of Native American children through fostering physical activity, healthy nutrition, youth development, and cultural connections. NB3 pursues the first of these goals, physical activity, through partnership with Fit Kids to form NB3FIT. Fit Kids’ mission is to provide structured physical activity programs for underserved youth.
One result of this partnership is the NB3FIT Youth Golf Team. Each year, this team is composed of 15 Native American golfers aged 13-17. This important program removes many of the barriers that Native youth face when pursuing high levels of golf competition. The 2022 NB3FIT Team includes players from Albuquerque, Kirtland, Gallup, Laguna, and Diné. Graduates from last year’s team are all attending college and one received a scholarship to compete on a DII golf team.
First Tee–Four Corners is proud to count some of our past and present participants on the 2022 NB3FIT Youth Golf Team. These Kirtland golfers are Zachary BlueEyes, Skyler Woods, Elysse Woods, Dallas Dan, and Ardell John. Many of these golfers have graced our programming for many years, and some–such as Zachary BlueEyes–have also volunteered as assistant coaches and at many events and fundraisers.
These golfers have a challenging but rewarding summer ahead of them! As members of the NB3FIT team, they will meet twice a month to practice and work on activities together. However, they will also be utilizing responsibility and perseverance to complete many individual projects and activities. They will work on practice plans provided by NB3FIT coaches, attend ten tournaments through August throughout the summer (a combination of NB3 Junior Golf Tour and Sun Country tournaments), and develop a community service plan that allows them to complete five hours of community service per month. In addition to this, all high school-aged team members compete with their high school teams.
First Tee–Four Corners wishes these golfers good luck in the coming year. We are honored to have provided accessible foundational coaching to many of these competitors and we can’t wait to see all they achieve in golf and in life as they continue to improve and thrive!