Pioneer of the Week: Aleisha Jones plays for the challenge

By Adam Przeslak, staff reporter.

Aleisha Jones, an 18-year-old sophomore forward for the Lady Pioneers soccer team, lives to play the sport. Just the question of what it was exactly that attracted her to soccer put an enormous smile on her face. “I just love it,” she said as her face glows with a joyful grin.

During her athletic career she’s done just about everything you could imagine. Basketball, gymnastics, swimming, track and field and softball are just a few of the sports she’s dabbled around in. She participated in many of these sports at Midland High School until she graduated in 2015. However, there was no sport that grabbed her like soccer did.

Her love of team sports and the challenge of accomplishing a larger task as a team trying to work as one towards a goal absolutely hooked her onto soccer. “There’s just something about team sports,” she said.

Soccer has been her passion since she was 4-years-old and she’s always played on the front offensive side of the ball. As a forward she gets a lot of the chances and opportunities to put the ball in the opposing team’s net, which is something she has become quite familiar with during her tenure with the Lady Pioneers. She currently leads the team in total points with 18, and is tied for most goals at 7 with Paige Renshaw. She loves the action that comes with shots at scoring a goal or maybe two like she did against Muskegon Community College earlier this season.

Success follows her beyond the field and into the halls and classrooms of Delta where she is pursuing an associates degree in Science and would like to become an Anatomy or Biology teacher. While at Delta she’s made it onto both the Dean’s list and the Vice President’s list. She plans on transferring to a four year university once she’s earned her associates but is undecided about where to go just yet although she knows she wants to study Biology or Anatomy.

For now, she’s continuing her domination on the field with the rest of the Lady Pioneers who play their next game at home on Oct. 16 against Ancilla College.