The coach made sure his boys’ eyes were fixed on his own.

“There’s no limit to what we can accomplish if we don’t care who gets credit,” he told them.

The players put fists together, chanted, “Share sugar!” and loped onto the floor. “What’s with share sugar?” I asked. The coach, Raul Mendoza, shrugged and laughed.

“I have no idea. I’m 69, man. I just need them to cut and pass more.”

Mendoza, who long ago left the Tohono O’odham Nation, has nearly 700 career wins, two Coach of the Year Awards and a state championship to his credit. He is a revered coach on a reservation where hoops are a cousin to religion. Reservation basketball, called rez ball, is a sneaker-squeaking, whirling-dervish style of play. Its secrets are passed from grandfather to auntie to son.

Chinle’s population is 4,518. About 3,500 fans attended this midweek game, grandmothers wrapped in traditional blankets, aunts and uncles, and coquettish teenage girls. The boys are expected to wear dress shirts and ties to games, and no matter how humble their family finances, they look dapper.

The Chinle boys’ team, the Wildcats, stumbled last year to a record of 4-17. Officials persuaded Mendoza, then coaching at Window Rock, Ariz., to take control in Chinle. Mendoza and I met a few years back, and he invited me to look in on his rebuild. I figured, why not?

This was my chance to put a shovel into the soil of rez ball, to explore the lives of these Navajo boys and their families. And it was a chance to explore what drives this man and his passion for counseling and teaching hoops in this achingly beautiful land.

I hopped a flight and drove to the Navajo Nation.

Decades ago, I traveled here with my wife, Evelyn, and our young sons. We lived in a trailer. Evelyn, a midwife, delivered babies for the Indian Health Service. On days off, we put Aidan, the baby, on my back, she held the hand of 5-year-old Nick and we descended into Canyon de Chelly, where, for centuries, Navajos farmed, chanted prayers and hid from white invaders. Crows soared above sandstone walls as we ran our hands along petrified sand dunes and felt cool mystery.