Deidra Jones, captain of the St. Thomas University women’s volleyball team, transferred to STU knowing nothing about the university. She just knew she was interested in criminology and she could play volleyball here.
She heard about STU from a friend who reached out to her after her previous team got cut at Cape Breton University.
“Basically, when she messaged me I was like ‘Well I’ll look at the programs’ because, at this point I was going into my third year and I was like, ‘I need to start focusing more on school rather than volleyball,’ because the past two years were just about volleyball,” said Jones.
Jones has been playing volleyball for 13 years. She went to CBU because, at the time, that was the only place she wanted to go. She didn’t want to leave Cape Breton and the small-town feel. She and her friends could walk everywhere. She feels like it’s a smaller version of Fredericton.
She started out playing soccer as a kid, as well as basketball and track and field. When she decided to play sports in university she had to decide between soccer and volleyball.
“When I was looking at what universities I wanted to go to, Cape Breton University was really the only one I wanted to go to cause I’m from there, and I was getting recruited to soccer and volleyball, but I chose volleyball,” said Jones.
“It was more of a welcoming community, it was really nice.”
Jones hopes to get into the RCMP when she is done at STU. She said she came here for the criminology program, but ended up enjoying psychology just as much and is now doing a double-major.
Jones would love for the Tommies to win the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association championships this year. She said it would be even better because STU is hosting the finals this year and so the whole community would be there to help cheer them on.
She said she’s gained so much from being on the volleyball team. Being a student athlete isn’t easy and requires a good work ethic, she said, but it’s worth it. She has a great support system.
“You get the support of the girls on the team. If they’re going to go study, you join them or go work out you join them. Having the support is definitely a big help.”
