By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
A Moapa Valley High School alumnus received a high honor earlier this summer. Kim Ortega was inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association’s (NJCAA) Hall of Fame for basketball during a special ceremony held in July in Niceville, Florida. Only three other people in the nation were inducted this year.
“It was really a great experience and wonderful recognition,” said Ortega of her induction during an interview with the Progress last week. “I was proud to have accomplished what I did, being from such a small town and coming as far as I have come.”
Ortega grew up in the Moapa Valley and attended the public schools here. She graduated in the year 2000 from MVHS after being very active in high school athletics. She played on the Lady Pirates basketball team under coach Merrill Staheli, on the volleyball team under coach Rod Adams and she ran track under coach Jeff Keel.
“High school in Moapa Valley was a good experience,” Ortega said. “Of course, the education was great. But it was athletics that kept me motivated.”
After high school, Ortega accepted a scholarship offer to play basketball at Seward County Community College in Liberal, Kansas. Ortega said that the change was a big step from Moapa Valley.
“Most of the girls coming to play basketball there were from bigger cities,” she said. “Only one or two of us were coming from a small town. Other girls arrived with their family bringing them and all of their belongings. I just flew in by myself with two duffle bags and a suitcase. It was hard and I was pretty anxious and nervous at first.”
But she didn’t take long to hit her stride in basketball. Ortega was one of an elite few basketball players to twice earn first-team NJCAA All-American honors. She achieved this following both her 2001 and 2002 seasons. In those two seasons at Seward County, Ortega led the Lady Saints to a 71-1 overall record and a perfect 32-0 record in Region 6 play. During this time the SCCC Lady Saints won back-to-back Kansas Jayhawk West Division titles as well as the program’s second Region 6 tournament championship in 2002.
The Lady Saints captured the NJCAA Division I Women’s Championship in 2002 with a perfect 38-0 record and she earned Tournament MVP and Player of the Year honors.
For her two-year career at Seward County, she averaged 17.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 4.7 steals per game.
After she finished her two year program at SCCC, Ortega excelled on the court at Texas Christian University. There she helped her team in back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2003 Conference USA Tournament Championship.
She received a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from TCU and then spent a year playing pro basketball for the Birmingham Power in the National Women’s Basketball League.
She returned to Seward County as an assistant coach in 2005 where she coached for three seasons. Then she returned back to her home state of Nevada for a two year coaching sting at UNLV.
She is currently working on a Master’s degree in special education at UNLV. She is also teaching at New Horizons Center For Learning, a private special needs school in Las Vegas.
Ortega said she felt grateful to have had such a wide variety of experiences that led to this Hall of Fame distinction.
“My goal was to move away from my small home town and be a part of a strong athletic program,” Ortega said. “But it was also to be proud to be from a small town and to represent the Moapa Valley well. I’m thankful that I could do that.”
Ortega expressed gratitude to her teachers and mentors throughout her school years in Moapa Valley who helped to mould her into what she has become.
And she was especially grateful for her parents and siblings for all their support they’ve given from home over the years.
“I’ve been gone a long time,” she said. “But I always had a strong support system at home where I could come back and regroup and stay grounded and humble.”
