The opportunity to play at a well-respected collegiate soccer program is a reality for a Preston High senior.

Alexis Harris recently finalized her commitment to play at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington.

Competing at the next level has been a long-time objective of Harris, who was a three-year starter for Preston.

“It means a lot,” said Harris, a three-sport athlete who was Preston’s starting point guard and competes as a hurdler and sprinter for the track and field program. “I’ve wanted to play college ball since I can remember. My dad played college football, so growing up, it was just something that I always wanted to do. And so now that I have the opportunity to do that, I’m really excited and I’m really grateful for everybody who’s helped me get to where I am.”

The forward scored nine goals and assisted on seven others as a senior for the Indians, who went 12-6-2 this past season. Preston has developed into one of the top programs in Idaho’s 4A classification, and several of its players have gone on to play at the next level over the past five-plus seasons.

Harris is grateful to continue that tradition.

“This is really exciting because, honestly, we have a really talented group of girls come through every single year, and so having (colleges) look at everybody, I just think the program’s finally getting what it deserves, getting recognition for all of the good things (we’ve accomplished),” she said.

A lot of the schools in Peninsula’s conference were recruiting Harris, who started noticing how dominant the Pirates were when researching that league, the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC). She then reached out to the Peninsula coaching staff and sent a highlight clip to head coach Kanyon Anderson, who emailed her back and invited her on a recruiting trip.

Harris visited the campus last October, “kind of committed” at the end of the trip and signed with the Pirates at the end of January. Harris was able to practice with the team as it was preparing for the NJCAA Division I national tournament.

Since joining the NWAC in 2010, Peninsula has an overall record of 183-22-14 and a league mark of 139-8-9. The Pirates have won nine consecutive North Region titles and claimed NWAC championships in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2018.

Harris aspires to eventually showcase her talents at a four-year program, much like former Preston High standouts Katie Call (BYU-Hawaii), Paige Moser-Tews (Utah State) and Morgan Hall (Idaho State) did after playing two seasons at the junior college level.

“(Peninsula) had six sophomores this past year and five of them signed on to four-year programs,” Harris said. “And the other girl, I kind of talked to her, and she just didn’t really want to keep playing. And talking to the coach, I told him ... that I want to go on to a four-year program, and he just told me that through their program if I want to play on, I’ll get the opportunity to. So I have very high expectations of doing that.”