Sonia Morales-Jones

Sonia Morales-Jones is a passionate and professional educator and coach with over 24 years of experience in leadership, instruction, development, and coaching. She has a proven track record of helping individuals and teams achieve their full potential, as demonstrated by the success of the Benedictine University at Mesa Women’s Volleyball program, where she was selected as the first head coach in program history and tasked with building the program into a championship contender. She posted an overall record of 166-88 in her nine seasons in the NAIA (2015-2023), including six postseason appearances, three NAIA National Championship appearances, two Cal Pac Conference regular season championship titles, and one Cal Pac Conference Tournament Championship title. Under her leadership, the program produced 18 All-Conference honors, 15 AVCA All-Region honors, four AVCA All-American honors, five California Pacific Conference Defenders of the Year, two Freshman of the Year, one Setter of the Year, one Attacker of the Year, and one Player of the Year. Sonia was named Cal Pac Conference Coach of the Year in 2022. Additionally, the program earned six Team Academic Achievement awards at BenU for posting the highest team GPA and 12 players were named Daktronics NAIA National Scholar Athletes.

Before BenU, Sonia made her mark at Seton Catholic Prep, where she was the head coach from 2012-2014 and in three seasons combined for a 77-29 record, including a 27-3 league record. The team had three state tournament appearances, including final-four finishes in 2012 and 2014. Jones was named DIII Section V Coach of the Year in 2014. Sonia has coached club volleyball within the Arizona Region of USA Volleyball for 24 years and has guided 10u-18u teams in development, growth, and achievement.

Sonia started her college volleyball career playing at Chaminade University before transferring to Grand Canyon University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fitness and Wellness with a minor in Health Education. She has a Master’s of Education in Counseling and Human Relations from Northern Arizona University and is currently pursuing a PhD. Formerly a professional firefighter/paramedic and emergency services educator, Sonia currently serves a Residential Faculty member at Mesa Community College where she teaches Sports Psychology, Intro to Psychology, and Psychology & Culture. She is an NAIA Character-Driven Coach, USAV CAP-II certified coach, and NFHS Level 1 certified coach. With a deep understanding of human behavior and performance, she is committed to fostering growth alongside student-athletes with a relationship-first and culture-centered leadership style.