Alexandra Gjonaj knows how to persevere.

The left-sided midfielder for Michigan Hawks didn’t make the club’s A team on her first try, but kept working to improve and last season made the squad.

This year she made the ODP Region II team, went to the National ID camp and had a good camp at the U.S. Youth Soccer Interregional in Florida at Thanksgiving. Even the player herself admitted it was a surprise.

“That was a big shocker, coming from the B Team and then going to ODP and making it,” Gjonaj said. “It was a hard camp because the players were so good and the national coaches were watching, plus they move you to different positions. But it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.”

Having played club with Northville Premier for three years, Gjonaj first played for the Hawks B team at U12, with then-A team coach John Buchanan staying behind after practices to help her improve her skills.

“He did a lot of extra training,” said Alex’s mother Leza. “He worked with her a lot on 1v1 training and she is really driven so she just kept working on her skills, and then she made it.”

Alex Gjonaj played central midfield for the other Hawks team but has now found a home on the left side of midfield. Her success with ODP has also buoyed her confidence, but when she first took the step up with Hawks, she admits to being a bit daunted.

“When I first made the Hawks A team, I just thought everyone was so much better than me, that I’d never get good enough to play with these players,” she said. “I felt like I’d never belong there, but Derek talked to me and I started to get more confident.”

Wiliford believes Gjonaj and the Hawks U15 team, who lost last summer to Toro Bravo in the U15 Region II Final, have a lot of potential.

“She’s gotta get better at taking players on, but she’s only 14. At this level, I’m just trying to get them to wake up to being able to do that against the best level of competition, to do at the national level like she does in MRL (Midwest Regional League). She has the abilty to take people on, she just needs to get more consistent,” he said. “Every kid on my team has a lot of potential, it’s just a matter if they’re willing to make the sacrifices to get there. This team has come a long way to be very competitive at every level, but there’s still a long way to go.”

Gjonaj said improving her play as a forward off the ball is a current area of emphasis.

“The regional coaches said when I do have the ball, I know what to do, but that doing better off the ball would take me closer to the national team,” she said. “They say it’s more of a mental thing than going to coach and asking for some drill to do. Derek talks about it almost all the time. He says the big moments in a game are where you have to be good in the final third. He has us work on that a lot.”

And we know that in Gjonaj’s case, she will not give up until she gets it right.

Gjonaj was the only Michigan player on the Region II 94s, who also included among others, Kylie Morgan, Katie Naughton, Melissa Bomberger, Crystal Thomas and Lauren Miller.