By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

For most of the 47 coaches, student-athletes and staff that went on the Baylor Sports Ministry's trip to Maceio, Brazil back in May, seeing the level of poverty and living conditions were sobering shocks to their systems.

This was Aline De Lima's life.

"I grew up playing in the streets just like they do," said De Lima, a senior center midfielder from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and one of nine players off the Baylor soccer team that made the trip to Brazil. "That's why I love soccer, and that is my passion since I was a little kid. Seeing so many of those kids fighting for their dreams is kind of like where I am right now. I fought for my dreams and I'm here, thank God, because I had the best opportunities and people that were able to help me get here."

De Lima calls the mission trip and the chance to "profess my faith with the kids . . . one of the coolest things I have done my whole life."

Now, along with her goal of playing professional soccer, she wants to develop a non-profit organization to help children in Brazil fulfill their dreams the way that hers have come true.

"That was an amazing experience for me, for my teammates, being in my homeland and being able to help others," she said. "I would love to help people the way people helped me in doing something I'm good at."

She's way better than good.

De Lima can do things with a soccer ball that seem impossible. It's like a magician with slight-of-hand tricks or a basketball point guard with no-look passes. You sit there and go, "Did that just happen?"

"She's a true soccer player," Baylor coach Paul Jobson said. "You see Europeans, and they're just so comfortable with the ball. She's definitely one of those kids who's just a soccer junkie. That's why she's as good as she is with the ball."

From an early age, De Lima "always had the ball and I couldn't leave the ball alone. I always had the ball on my feet."

"I was always trying to get better on my touches, my skills," she said. "One of my coaches had us use tennis balls before practice to work on our control and stuff, and it was really helpful. That's kind of where I developed my skills."

Four years ago, De Lima left her home in Brazil to play soccer at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. She earned all-region honors and was named the league's Freshman of the Year, scoring 10 goals and adding four assists for the Trappers.

Originally promised a full scholarship, De Lima ended up being on a partial scholarship at Northwest and had to return to Brazil after just one season and sat out the next year.

"I was struggling with whether I wanted to go back to the U.S. or if I wanted to do anything in Brazil. I needed to make a decision," she said. "And then, we started to contact this coach, Coach (Jonathan) Garber in New York. He had recruited some Brazilians, so he actually came to my city in Brazil to see me play and gave me a shot, a full scholarship, to this school in New York."

As a sophomore at Monroe College in New Rochelle, N.Y., De Lima had a monster year. She scored 23 goals, added six assists and helped lead the Mustangs to the NJCAA national semifinals, earning first-team All-American honors.

"Recruiting is getting younger and younger, that I wanted to see if there was a way where we could recruit older players, kids that were kind of ready when they came here," Jobson said. "Somebody had mentioned that the junior college level was hit or miss, so I took a chance, went to the junior college national championships, and there were two teams that I was just blown away by. Hers was one."

And specifically De Lima, although Jobson was also interested in 5-foot-10 midfielder Kathellen Souza, another Brazilian who "was a great ball-winner, she was great in the air, she was everything that Baylor was about."

"I only had enough(scholarship) money for one. And, I had some (players like Souza)," Jobson said. "Aline was somebody that was different and could be a game-changer for us because she was so different. . . . And I thought, 'Well, let's take a chance and let's go after this kid who's quick and great on the ball and is a playmaker and see if we can get her.' She was lights-out, probably the best player in the tournament."

De Lima had her pick of schools, including other Big 12 programs like Kansas and Oklahoma State. But, when she made her visit to Baylor, "literally, when I got here, I knew this was going to be my place." Her junior college coach insisted that she finished taking her official visits, but De Lima knew where she was going.

Coming to Baylor last fall with a pre-existing MCL injury in her right knee, the 5-3 midfielder had to sit out the team's two exhibitions and first nine games of the 2016 season. But, she still ranked second on the team with four goals, had two game-winners and finished with an efficient .222 scoring average, taking just 18 attempts all year.

"It was a tough transition in all aspects, but even harder when I found out that I had the knee injury and I wouldn't be the best I could be, because I had limitations," she said. "That was something I really struggled with. At the end of the season, I was actually able to help the team, but it wasn't what I expect. Sometimes, I'm so hard on myself, because I want to be perfect. I know we can't be perfect, but I work hard to be the best version I can be."

Healthier this year, De Lima has scored two goals and added two assists for the Bears, who are 6-1-1 going into Friday night's Big 12 opener against fifth-ranked West Virginia (7-2-0).

"You try to control what your team is thinking and their emotions all season long, but you know for sure that West Virginia is one on the calendar that they're looking at," Jobson said. "This isn't a game where I have to come up with some way to pump my team up. I have to be careful not to over-hype it. . . . You have to prepare for every team the way you prepare. And if you over-excite yourself, you're going to wear yourself out before Friday comes. Take care of the details, do what we need to do and let's approach it like we would any other game."

The Bears finish out the two-game home stand, facing Iowa State (2-6-1) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Betty Lou Mays Field.

"We're always looking to learn," said Jobson, whose team was 40th in the first RPI rankings of the year after being 150th at this time a year ago. "We haven't arrived. It's a new season now, anything can happen in the Big 12."

LEGACY FUND: Support Baylor soccer through the Legacy Fund, and gain exclusive access to the team. Depending on the membership level, your family will enjoy benefits such as a Legacy T-shirt, autographed poster, press box tour, invites to luncheons, complimentary admission to the Soccer Banquet, private interaction with coaches and much more. You can join online http://www.baylor.edu/bearfoundation/index.php?id=97883">through the Baylor Bear Foundation.