Alexandra Zelaya: Living Up To The Family Name

The gift a family gives its members stems from the values of the people inherent to it.  Look into the eyes of UNC star freshman Alexandra Zelaya and you might see a promising young player finding her way among the collegiate athletic community, and you would be right to think that about the Arizona native.  Look deeper into her pupils until you see the person glowing beneath that is anything but typical and brimming with determination and wisdom that has been cultivated by an athletically minded family. 

Alexandra Zelaya says, “ I was basically born in a gym” as she explains both her parents were college athletes and avid athletes after their collegiate careers subsided.  Alexandra and her sisters grew from the little girls heaving basketballs at the goal while their parents played pick-up basketball in the local gyms into formidable and talented athletes of their own.  Older sister, Adriana worked herself into becoming one of the best players in the state as younger sister Alexandra watched and took notes. 

As Adriana went on to have a very respectable career with Monmouth University, young Alexandra began to put her notes into practice as she joined the Millennium High School team. By her junior year, Alexandra had solidified herself as one of the best players in the country, as coaches everywhere began to take notice.  It seemed every coach wanted to take a look at the athletic girl from Arizona.  The US girls team even invited her to play in an international game that summer against Spain.  It seemed as though the notes little Alexandra took were carrying her towards basketball royalty.  But, greatness never happens without adversity and humility. 

With the excitement of a summer filled with basketball burned brightly in Alexandra’s heart, she was poised to represent her country while simultaneously climbing in the national rankings of high school players.  Instead, she suffered a fractured foot and was forced to miss the summer basketball games that had filled her thoughts for the past months.  Immediately, she began to worry about being able to play college basketball.  The voices in her head seemed to be screaming ideas about not being able to play at the school of her dreams.  As worries compounded in her head about her future, she picked up the phone to call her sister, Adriana.  As Adriana answered the phone, she listened as her sister poured out concerns about her future.  Adriana told her younger sister to calm down and that injuries are a part of playing basketball.  She further explained that the programs that she should want to join would still be there for her once she had recovered. Alexandra hung up the phone with her mind at ease from the words of her older sister and filed the message away on her mental notebook. 

Alexandra entered her senior year healthy and ready for the season.  She emphatically led her team to the Arizona state championship and triumphantly showed she can handle adversity. With the championship secured, Alexandra Zelaya began to set her gaze towards Chapel Hill as she planned to apply the family wisdom in an effort to help the Legendary Tar Heels program.

While many college freshmen try to apply their high school mindset to the college level, the demands of college basketball require a more disciplined approach than most high school players have ever experienced.  Alexandra Zelaya was not one of these players, she followed the advice of her older sister as she walked into the fabled Carmichael Arena to join her new teammates, and trusted in the new program while adapting a mindset of trusting in the process of transitioning from high school to college through the UNC program.  This mindset of trust helped her to push herself harder in training than she had ever experienced.

As the season began, Alexandra found herself with limited playing time during the first part of the season.  The girl that had led her high school to a state championship found herself sitting on the bench for the first time in her life.  Instead of sulking about her position on the team, she took advice from her family and threw herself deeper into her trust in the program and the process of becoming a college player.  She began to participate in extra workouts.  It was through this mindset and efforts that Alexandra Zelaya has found herself with increasing playing time and a growing role with the UNC team.  Chapel Hill is starting to take notice of the young star as she begins to write her chapter on the storied walls of Carmichael Arena.

As Zelaya finds herself becoming a crucial player on the legendary UNC squad, playing in the very gym Michael Jordan spent his college years, she seems to smile as she proudly exudes the values inherent to the Zelaya family.  While the family watches proudly as they see their “Allie” wear the jersey of the team she undeniably was born to represent, she seems to be making the heads of college basketball turn in her direction.  While Coach Banghart speaks of Alexandra, calling her “the gift” Alexandra cannot help to notice her younger sister, Avalyn, paying attention to the wisdom of her older sister as Alexandra introduces herself to the world of college basketball.