The first time Nia Leslie played soccer was with a basketball. 

Thirteen years ago in Haiti, 9-year-old Nia was orphaned. She recalled kicking an old basketball around the orphanage yard. 

“But mind you . . . I was like this big,” said Nia, holding her hands close together to show how thin she was. “Skin and bones.” 

She remembered getting hit in the chest with the ball when a bigger kid kicked it her way. 

“I was winded,” Nia said. “Like, literally, the air got kicked out of me.” 

Nia now plays Div. 1 soccer for ACU as a forward. 

In 2012, Nia and one of her biological brothers moved to San Antonio after they were adopted by Jeff and Tiffany Leslie, and in the process, she gained two older brothers and a sister, close in age, named Lydia.  

Lydia Leslie (left), junior kinesiology major from Helotes, and Nia Leslie (right), senior biology major from Helotes, holding hands on Nia’s first day in the United States.

From the beginning, Lydia has been a source of constant support for Nia. 

“I just remember when I first got here, I was at her hip,” Nia said. “Like, there was no Lydia without Nia.” 
 

Lydia recalled special moments of mutual appreciation for each other, even when they did not speak the same language. 

“We still had our ways of talking to each other,” Lydia said, recalling a time she shared chocolate with Nia. “I just broke a piece of the chocolate bar and gave it to her and she was so happy.” 

Nia’s parents put her and Lydia in multiple sports, from basketball to gymnastics to swimming to Irish dancing to soccer. 

“Literally name it; I was probably doing it,” Nia said. “Eventually, they just kept me in soccer.” 

After a year of playing at the YMCA, her parents invested in club soccer. Nia said she wanted to contribute to this investment by earning an athletic scholarship. 

Nia had been coming to ACU ID camps since the seventh grade – but choosing to play at ACU was a mixture of reasons, extending further than solely athletics. 

“Coming from Haiti at 9 years old, I’m academically behind,” Nia said, “so I’ve always been a lot better with smaller classes and more intimate interactions with my teachers.” 

Nia’s college soccer career, however, set off on a painful start: On the day Nia graduated high school, she tore her ACL. 

She recovered in time to play the final two games in the spring. But on the first day of preseason in July, she tore the same knee again. 

“At that point, I was like, ‘God, do you want me to play? I genuinely do not see the plans that you have for me right now,’” Nia said. 

After months of rest and physical therapy, she returned midway through the fall season – only to suffer a third injury. This time, though, it was her wrist. 

“I’m going down the line. They play a beautiful ball and I’m going to the goal,” Nia said. “A 6-foot-tall girl comes [and] takes me out.” 

Nia fell and landed on her wrist, breaking and dislocating it. The team still had several days left on the road trip before she could see a doctor. 

“I did not sleep at all,” Nia said. “All those nights, crying myself to sleep because I’m in so much pain.” 

Nia was not taken to the doctor until two days after returning to Abilene. During that time, she said her wrist popped in and out of place whenever she used it.  

At the appointment, the doctor told her she needed emergency surgery.

Nia Leslie, senior foward/defender from Helotes, her first year playing soccer for ACU. (Photo by Steven Infante)

“This is the worst situation you could be in right now,” Nia recalled the doctor saying. “This injury only happens in high-speed motorcycle accidents.” 

Her mother drove eight hours, there and back, to bring her home for surgery. Afterward, Nia spent six weeks in a soft cast and eight weeks in a hard cast. 

While recovering, she took anatomy and microbiology as she prepared for nursing school – a semester she describes as the lowest point of her life. 

“Being an orphan, I think I would take that over that spring,” Nia said, “because it was genuinely hell.” 

Robbie Cozad, the team’s student manager, watched Nia withdraw from being an energetic player to distant and in pain. 

“When I witnessed her after that injury, it was like a little bit of a spark had gone from her,” Robbie said, “because, I mean, she lost her sport and she couldn’t play.” 

Nia said her anxiety consumed her as she struggled to eat and shower. 

Slowly, her spark returned. Robbie said Nia never gave up, as she poured everything into recovery. 

“Watching her work to overcome it was so inspirational,” Robbie said. “It was just such a force to see, you know, she was just always working and always liked doing rehab to try and get better.”  

Lydia echoed a similar admiration for Nia’s resilience. 

“I’ve seen her grow a lot in the past few months,” Lydia said. “She’s just the hardest worker I’ve ever met.” 

Lydia said she felt so much joy when Nia returned to the field to play again after her injuries.  

“I really do think that’s where I see her truly at her happiest,” Lydia said.  

Nia will return this fall season for her senior year and last season of college soccer – a long way from an old basketball.

From a thin 9-year-old in a Haitian orphanage to a Div. 1 athlete in Texas, Nia continues to show fortitude that her friends, family and teammates share they admire.