Less than a year ago, COVID-19 had Aleeya Jones in bed, unable to eat, learn, or compete. The Wiscasset Christian Academy graduate was starting her freshman year at Iowa Western Junior College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Saturday, June 26, she was home on Suki Lane, healthy and playing on her family’s sand court in a “Back to Freedom” tournament her mother Julie Jones said was to celebrate the court’s reopening.

Refereeing a game, Julie Jones said she was happy seeing people back on the court, but mostly just happy to be seeing people together again.

Aleeya’s team with Michael Sprague, Sammie Sheppard and Kyle Pinard won; Rachel Pease, Dan Carlson, Sean Kennedy, Evan Kennedy and Brad Hill came second.

In a sit-down interview between her games,  Aleeya Jones caught Wiscasset Newspaper up on where she is in the sport and what she went through with the virus and then again last spring right after she got vaccinated, before nationals.

“I just got the shot, went straight to practice, I felt great in practice, and then I went right downhill ... that night I had a 105 temperature. It just spiked right up ... It was a two-day thing and I was back on my feet.” She added, she had been warned the vaccine could hit her harder than some because, first semester, she had had the virus. “I struggled (in the fall bout). I couldn’t get out of bed, let alone do a bunch of homework.” Her illness brought her grades too low to be allowed to compete first semester. “I’ve got my grades way up (now), they just skyrocketed after that, I wanted to play so bad.”

In August, she heads back to IWJC for her sophomore year. She and her mother explained, most of its student-athletes, including Aleeya, are being trained for transfer into Division 1 programs at four-year schools. She remains hopeful for eventually making the Olympics or other international competitions. If she gets the opportunity, she would definitely take it, the 5’9” player said.

She was 4 1/2 feet tall when readers met her in 2013. The Olympics were her dream then, too. How has she held onto it, and kept working toward it, as she grew up? “A lot of people say, ‘I’m surprised you’re not burned out by now.’ But ... I can’t really imagine me not playing volleyball,” Aleeya said. “There’s always something I can do that’s further on in volleyball, and I’m very, very competitive and every day I just have a new goal and I want to reach it.”

She also credited her supportive mother, family and others. And she praised the college’s training facilities and coaching. Jones is studying education and when she moves onto a four-year school is considering minoring in marine biology, which she loves, she said.

Mother Julie said she and husband Chad Jones, Aleeya’s father, believe the teen “will not give up, and we are here for her every step of the way.” Julie said it is hard for Aleeya to be noticed, as a small town Maine athlete and because “financially we can't give her the best training she needs. She has the heart, desire and determination to strive as far as she can possibly go with the Lord guiding her every step ... All we can do is support her with prayers and encouragement as we cheer her on from the sidelines.”

Whether or not she makes the Olympics, she is a Christian role model who “can show other young or even older athletes to never give up because if you put your heart into it, something good will always come out of it,” Julie said.

Julie and Chad Jones said Saturday’s clouded sky was ideal for the tournament. They have just set the court’s annual Dean Snell Cancer Foundation benefit for Aug. 14. Watch for details on Jones Sand Volleyball Court’s Facebook page. Aleeya will be back at college, but at home in spirit for the event: “I hope we never stop doing it.”