Belen volleyball player Addison Soiles signs with Edmonds College near Seattle

Addison Soiles’ move from the Belen High School gym to a college roster in Lynnwood, Washington, shows how the Eagles keep turning local volleyball players into recruitable talent. Soiles signed with Edmonds College on May 8 in front of friends, family and supporters, adding another college-bound athlete to a program that continues to send players beyond Valencia County.

The path to Edmonds started with a January visit that helped convince Soiles the area around the school was the right fit. Coaches first reached out after seeing her recruiting reel, then invited her to campus, where she practiced with the team and got a closer look at the program. That visit appears to have mattered as much as the paperwork: Soiles said the chance to see the school and work with the team helped cement her decision.

At Edmonds, Soiles will shift into a setter role. That is a notable step for a player who spent time at several positions at Belen, where a volleyball preview last August described her as a senior who led the Eagles in kills the previous season. The setter role suggests Edmonds sees her not just as a versatile athlete, but as someone who can direct the offense and handle the demands of a college court.

The academic side of the move is just as important. Soiles plans to begin a radiology pathway at Edmonds, tying her athletic opportunity to a career track. Edmonds College sits on a 50-acre campus in Lynnwood, about 15 miles north of Seattle, and the school says it offers two-year and four-year degree options, transfer pathways and health-career programs. Its healthcare careers listing includes radiology and ultrasound, fields that often require prerequisites such as anatomy and physiology, nutrition and microbiology.

That mix of academics and athletics is a common reason junior-college programs matter so much for players from places like Belen and the rest of Valencia County. Soiles hopes to keep playing volleyball after community college and eventually continue at a four-year school, a route that keeps the door open for both a degree and a bigger athletic stage.

Edmonds’ volleyball program is led by head coach Tony Miranda, who has been in the job since December 2015. The college said Miranda brought 25 years of coaching experience when he was hired, and that he previously helped Edmonds win an NWAC North Region regular-season title and finish third at the NWAC tournament in 2008.

Soiles’ recruiting profile lists her as a 5-foot-5 setter from Belen, New Mexico, and shows her joining the Edmonds women’s volleyball roster on March 29. For Belen, the signing is another sign that the school’s programs are producing athletes ready for college opportunity, and that the pipeline from the valley still reaches well beyond New Mexico.