ST. REGIS – As the first half of her senior year comes to a close, Arianna Jones looks back on her career at St. Regis with the Lady Tigers volleyball team.

Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Jones has lived in Mineral County most of her life. With a laugh, Jones admitted she had no idea why her family made the move from Arizona, but figured it had to do with family in the area. Her family initially lived in Superior before moving to St. Regis in time for the young girl to start first grade.

Jones started on the volleyball team in sixth grade, a year after most girls take up the sport. She said volleyball was not her favorite sport and she thought it was too girly. However, she was a big athlete in school and volleyball was the only sport she did not play, much to the coach’s frustration. Jones said the coach conspired with her mom to get her to join the team.

“I didn’t really have a choice whether to play or not,” Jones said. “So I started in my sixth grade year and I’ve been playing [volleyball] ever since.”

Jones said she would miss her teammates after she graduated because everyone had become like a second family. She felt the team had an amazing season this year and played better than past years. With pride in her voice, she recalled how excited she was to have the team go to divisionals. She said it had been a long time since the Lady Tigers had gone so far in a season.

“It was really exciting to go out my senior year going to divisionals,” Jones said.

Jones admitted how, despite being more or less forced onto the team, she would miss playing volleyball. She said she learned she was good at the game and it had grown on her. While she may continue volleyball for fun, she has no plans to play it in college, if she goes.

Jones said she had not thought about college yet and voiced a desire to join the Air Force. This has led to somewhat conflicting choices as she would like to do both. She said she might join the Air Force and go to college at the same time or wait on college until after she finished in the military. The latter could be the better option, as she would like to play some college sports.

“I’m a big competitor and I can’t really give that up,” Jones said.

In the spirit of continued competition, Jones will be on the Lady Panthers basketball team this year. She will also do track and field this spring. She admitted this was a sport she was excited for and said she was gearing up for it. Jones also said she plans to try for a scholarship in javelin throwing later this year. Even though volleyball season is over, Jones will still get to play with her team before graduation.

She said most of the volleyball team would be going to basketball with her. While she has not thought about it too much, Jones would like to play college basketball. She is looking forward to basketball this winter and hopes the St. Regis team makes it to divisionals and state competition this year.

“I know if we push for it…we can do it,” Jones said. “We should have a really good basketball team this year and as long as we work together, I think we can achieve that goal.”