By Doug Carroll

Growing up, Alexis Diaz-Infante always had her nose in a book.

When she was riding in the car to a friend's house, her absorption was so complete that she didn't even pay attention to the route.

"Reading is what I do," she says.

It might be the only thing that hasn't changed over the years for Diaz-Infante, who used volleyball — and her two seasons of playing the sport at Scottsdale Community College — to travel routes she might never have taken in life. The journey has taken her outside her comfort zone, and that's a distinct possibility again in 2023.

Diaz-Infante, 23, the only sophomore on SCC's 2019 national championship team, graduated recently from NCAA Division II Augusta University, where she helped lead the Georgia school's volleyball program to unprecedented success in two-plus seasons.

If she's not the first English literature major to become an all-region middle blocker, then the list surely is a short one. But the truth is that all those books and blocks worked together to develop the confident, self-assured woman she is today.

"I struggled in school as a kid," says Diaz-Infante, who was born in Parker, Colo., and moved to Phoenix with her family when she was 8. She is the daughter of David Diaz-Infante, a longtime NFL assistant coach who most recently was with the Los Angeles Chargers and also has been a commentator for ESPN.

"When I had to read bigger chapter books, my mom would buy me a book at Costco and I'd finish it in a day," she says. "In the second or third grade, I could pick up a book and get lost in it. Reading helped me get better at school."

That's an understatement. At Xavier College Prep in Phoenix, known for its rigorous academics, she was part of a state championship volleyball team — and was an academic All-American. Yet, as an undersize middle (6 feet tall), she was not heavily recruited by colleges.

A break came when her Xavier coach recommended her to Regina Mannix, SCC's head coach.

Mannix "told me everything I wanted to hear," Diaz-Infante says. "When I spoke to her, she had confidence in herself, the program and me. Her assistant, Julia Larish, was another reason I liked Scottsdale. I wanted a trainer who could help me get better."

SCC's remarkable run to the NJCAA championship remains a storehouse of memories for her — everything from the five-set upset of Parkland College in the final to a regular-season win on the road over Arizona Western that was celebrated at a McDonald's.

"Other alumni have said that they never got McDonald's," Diaz-Infante says with a laugh. "It was like seeing the fruits of our labor."

Although the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic hampered her recruitment by four-year colleges, she knew she wanted to keep playing. She looked at Division II schools that were located in places she thought she might like, contacting them with the help of Mannix.

When she visited Augusta, a public university with an enrollment of 9,000 and a medical center, she had never been to Georgia before. But by this time, the formerly self-conscious bookworm had evolved into a master communicator on the court and an overachiever in everything.

"I remember thinking, 'I have nothing to lose,'" Diaz-Infante says of her college decision. "I wasn't a super-big believer in myself in high school, but I knew I could do it. I had done hard stuff before. I struggled at the start with being homesick, but I had bet on myself with this choice."

Last fall, behind Diaz-Infante and her former SCC teammate Jazmyn Wheeler, Augusta won its first Peach Belt Conference volleyball championship, going 25-8 overall and 12-3 in the conference. The previous Augusta team, also with Diaz-Infante, reached the Division II Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

You can book this: Wherever she goes, winning follows. So does a winning attitude.

"She's always a bright light," Mannix says. "She's infected with a desire to learn new things and look for new experiences. She's so open that she gets the most out of everything. As a coach, you want to invest in someone like that.

"Her smile is such that you can't not smile back."

Diaz-Infante performed well enough at Augusta that she is looking to extend her athletic career — this time in sand volleyball — while earning a master's degree, possibly in communications or business.

This spring, she is training in Phoenix to prepare. She expects her next adventure to take her out of Arizona again, perhaps for good, but says one thing would bring her home in a hurry.

"I would come back and coach under Regina any day of the week," she says. "She's amazing. She is growing women as well as athletes. You learn so much from her about life.

"I appreciate the Scottsdale program and what it did for me. Junior college is a great option. Your capacity for greatness is as much as you believe it to be. My parents always told me that if you believe you can or you believe you can't, either way you're correct."