Leaving Her Own Legacy: Eastfield's Santos a Second Generation Volleyball Star

DALLAS -- Mia Santos has a couple different legacies she wants to live up to. One belongs to the program she represents. The other is more personal – one with family roots.

A sophomore outside hitter at Dallas College Eastfield, Santos is a second-generation volleyball player for the Harvester Bees. Her aunt, Monica Forman, played for then-Eastfield College long before she ever donned the orange and blue.

It's brought new perspective to a player who's being pushed to higher standards this year.

"It's an amazing feeling honestly," Santos said. "When I was going into high school and college, you never really think about that type of stuff. Now that I've gotten older and taken a different role, and this has kind of come back, of course I think about it."

She has no idea what kind of player her aunt was. She's only heard stories. Forman won a Metro Athletic Conference championship with Eastfield in 1994. 

"Probably should ask her more about it, actually," Santos said, chuckling. "It's an amazing role to play to know that I'm carrying on a family legacy and to know that it's here for future years to come."

Legacies and lore aside, this season she's being asked to do more.

"Leadership, not only on the court as a player, but off the court as well," Eastfield coach Phil Nickel said. "Obviously, on the court, she can pass and hit, and be one of our go-to hitters. That's what we're looking for."

Named one of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Two-Year College Players to Watch in the preseason, Santos leads the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III in kills (107) entering Friday and Saturday's College of DuPage Invitational in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She was named the NJCAA Division III Player of the Week after banging down 18 kills in a sweep of Independence Community College, while hitting .345 in four three-set wins at the Dallas College Richland Tournament.

A product of Forney, Texas, Santos' early-season visibility has put her in the spotlight in a program coming off back-to-back national championships – the latter which she was a part of.

"She's not afraid of those expectations," Nickel said. "She wants to be excellent. I think it makes her want to work even harder to meet those expectations and be the player she's capable of being. She's a very driven young lady who works hard, and kind of has a no-nonsense type of attitude. She's going to go in the gym and give everything she's got."

Santos had to wait her turn, if you will, before being thrust into the Eastfield spotlight. Recruited to a team loaded in talent after winning the 2023 national championship meant waiting for her number to be called.

"Being in a program with a lot of really good players, from what I took from last year is I took a whole new role this year," she said. "The approach that I think I took is, I can either step up and be a leader or I can choose to go out there. That's kind of what I chose this year. That was my personality. I'm going to be a leader. I'm going to keep the legacy. I'm going to keep it moving on. That's how I kind of got to where I was. It's a mentality."

Last year, she finished the season with 57 kills total. She'll have that doubled by the weekend. She banged a career-high 19 kills in Eastfield's five-set loss at Cisco College on the opening weekend of the season. She had 17 kills in another match and 14 in the next that opening weekend. She hit .346 in back-to-back matches last weekend, and has double-digit kills in five of the eight matches this year, while putting away nine balls in two and eight in the other.

Santos had a career-high 19 digs at Cisco, and added 11 two matches earlier in a five-set win over Panola College. Her 68 digs this year also have nearly doubled her freshman season total of 39 during a year in which she competed in 21 sets. This year, she's already played in 28.

She was a Third Team NJCAA All-Academic honoree after putting up high marks in the classroom last year.

"She's a good student, too," Nickel said. "The kind of people we like to have in our program."

Santos knows Eastfield is not the same today as it was when her aunt was playing. She realizes the Harvester Bees aren't even the same as they were a year ago. That taught her to stay in the moment, and play from within her own capabilities.

"Learning to be myself," she said. "Honestly, we will never be the team we were last year. That's one thing we have to learn. Every single year, it's a different team. So carrying the legacy for different personalities and just allowing everybody to step up to the plate. And everyone having a voice this year, and allowing those different personalities to come out, it really just allows the legacy to be carried on. Everybody enjoys it, and it's an enjoyable program to be in. That alone will just carry for many years to come."

And no matter what path the Bees take this year, Santos will always have those family bloodline bonds to remember about her time at Eastfield.

"That's my family, and they make me who I am, and they play a huge role in making me the person that I've become," she said.

Sooner or later, she and her aunt might just have to compare stats. After all, there's a family rivalry to defend here, too.