Hernandez had a major hand in the documentary entitled “Off the Rez,” which follows Shoni Schimmel, now with Louisville, during her junior and senior years of high school. (AP)
Nelson Hernandez sat in a hotel room 2,000 miles away from the only home he knew and came to a life-altering decision as he cried his eyes out.
“Before I die, I’m going to do something to help young Native American basketball players in some way, big or small,” he said to himself following a weekend visiting with the Omaha tribe in Nebraska, his first trip to a reservation of any kind at the suggestion of a friend.
At the time, Hernandez was 23, an immature young man and basketball lover still looking for his calling. During the trip to the reservation, he was taken by the tribe’s love for basketball and the immediate bond he felt with the people.
“No matter how many reservations you go to, no matter how bad it is, there is always a hoop, there is always a gym and there are always people there,” said Hernandez, now 33 and a graduate assistant/video coordinator for the Utah State men’s basketball team.
Hernandez said he believes “Off the Rez,” which will be featured at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival, tells that story.
The Brooklyn native is a producer of the coming-of-age documentary that follows the path of Shoni Schimmel, a superstar girls basketball player with flair and an advanced skill set. Created by Jonathan Hock, who also did “Through the Fire,” the Sebastian Telfair story, “Off the Rez” follows Schimmel, then a high-school junior living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon. She just finished a brilliant freshman season at Louisville.
Shortly after that weekend in Omaha, Hernandez quit his job in New York City at the Gap and moved to Utah. He made it his life’s mission to help young Native American basketball players. The more tribes he visited, the greater the basketball passion, but also the heartbreak.
Opportunities were few and far between. Promising athletes often took to alcohol and drugs rather than college. Hernandez became acquainted with some of the best Native American basketball stars and created what he termed “a traveling, low-budget Harlem Globetrotters.”
They visited reservations, running basketball clinics and offering the encouragement of hope off the reservation. For five years, to varying degrees of success, Hernandez kept this up. But he began tiring of the practice. He didn’t feel as if he was making a difference.
Then he met Schimmel and her family, saw her play and listened to their story, which he relayed to Hock. A film, which could tell the story he had witnessed time and again the last half decade, could help in a way those visits couldn’t.
“I’m hoping,” Hernandez said, “it opens people’s eyes to give more Native American athletes a shot.”