Black History Month Alumni Series: Aleijah Tomlinson

Basketball or viola? Viola or basketball?

"I wasn't good at basketball," Aleijah Tomlinson said. "But I really, really wanted to play for some reason."

Tomlinson attended a music academy in Los Angeles for high school. She was the second chair in the symphony, which is a big deal. She had to make a choice.

She taught herself the basics and played for her high school team. She had some family in Ramona, so she decided to try junior college after talking with her high school coach. At 17, she began at Palomar.

"Coach [Leigh] Marshall let me join the team or at least come to the summer practices," Tomlinson said.

Marshall was honest with her about how hard she needed to work to have a spot on the team. She redshirted her first year so she could get better. Marshall paired her with teammates who were a lot better than her to push Tomlinson.

"That team was something I wanted to be a part of," Tomlinson said. "Just seeing the sisters and working hard knowing that every day we're all giving our all and busting our butts meant something to me and made me finally feel like I belonged."

Growing up with her grandma, Tomlinson struggled a lot to find her identity and feeling like she belonged. But Marshall was there for her, she says, at that point in her life as a developing young adult.

Tomlinson played a little her freshman year but worked her to a starting position her sophomore year, which she says is one of her greatest accomplishments.

"I had to learn to lead by example," Tomlinson said of not starting right away or getting a captain role. "I was doing all the things I wasn't very vocal about and at times I still didn't completely believe in myself the way Marshall or even the team did."

After her sophomore season, she had about five offers to play at the next level, one of which came after the discipline she showed in one game. She decided to play for Presentation College, an NAIA school in South Dakota. She was the first player from Palomar to play basketball there and they ended up recruiting more players because of the work ethic she learned under Marshall.

Finally seeing herself be able to graduate college, Tomlinson graduated on the President's List. Working as an admissions counselor, she decided she wanted to pursue a master's degree. She attended the University of Nottingham in England. Because of different eligibility requirements overseas, Tomlinson was able to play another year and a half, in which she earned a scholarship for academics and basketball. She was voted Most Valuable Player.

"I always thought that because of where my family's from and where we came from and stuff that I would never be able to afford that, but only the basketball helped me, everything I learned as a person allowed me to motivate myself and do my best to where I could go and do that academically and physically and enjoy myself as well as complete the program," Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson graduated with her master's degree in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management in December 2019. She was still living there when COVID hit.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, she was panicked to get back home. She has been working at Chuze Fitness as a manager since she's come home, utilizing her master's degree, but she wanted to coach. She was just hired to be the head girls basketball coach at Valley Center High School.

Tomlinson's five-year goal is to start a nonprofit for kids like her. She wants college students and recent college graduates of diverse backgrounds to be matched with high school students to show them what they can accomplish.

"I've always had that spark in me always wanted to do better, but Coach Marshall and Palomar, they were like a changing point for me, a pivoting point, because if I never went there, I don't think I would have tapped into that potential that I had, or even understood that I am academically smart and that I can achieve something like a master's degree or that I could play basketball and go as far as I did," Tomlinson said. "I've always fought against the odds and I've always believed in myself."