A dream deferred is still a dream realized.

There was a time when Brookhaven Academy senior Ainsley Orr wasn’t sure if she would reach her dream of playing college athletics.

A standout in soccer and basketball for the Cougars, Orr went down with a knee injury while participating in a basketball camp at Mississippi College in the summer before her senior year. She had been a key substitute off the bench as a sophomore when BA won a MAIS 5A title in hoops.

It was a major injury, the kind that requires surgery and lots of rehab. The kind that takes time to heal and who has time when it’s your senior season?

Orr missed the entire soccer campaign but came back around the halfway point of basketball sea-son, which brought joy to the collective Orr and Brown families that make up her fan club.

There was even more joy in the family last week, when Orr signed a letter-of-intent to play soccer next season at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba.

A Daily Leader All-Area selection as a sophomore and junior, Orr made a huge impact on soccer at BA during her time on the pitch. Something the school’s soccer coach, Alex Brown, thinks she’ll continue to do at EMCC.

“Ainsley was easily one of the best keepers in the MAIS when she was in form before her injury,” said Brown. “Her height and length help of course, but her IQ and her ability to predict and anticipate what’s next is what sets her apart. She consistently made difficult saves look easy. We had numerous games her sophomore and junior season that our opponent couldn’t beat us simply be-cause they couldn’t score on Ainsley.”

To know Orr is to know her love of laughter and jokes and the lighthearted way she carries herself through life.

Her positive vibes will be a welcome addition at EMCC, which just brought back soccer two seasons ago after a long hiatus of not fielding a team.

Head coach Chris Rash and his program are still looking to get their first Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) league win since the return of the program. The Lions were close last year, losing 2-0 to Copiah-Lincoln, 2-1 to Hinds, and suffering a pair of identical 1-1 ties to East Central.

Brown says Orr made an impact on Brookhaven Academy soccer last year, even when she wasn’t suited up for game action.

“She could not have been a better example for our team by how she handled her injury,” said Brown. “She was still at training every day, she was the loudest girl on the bench during our games, and she did a great job of teaching and mentoring the two seventh grade girls that moved up to varsity because of her injury. She had the most unselfish and selfless attitude about her injury.”

Regardless of the route you follow to the tiny town of Scooba and the campus of East Mississippi CC, it’ll take you about three hours from Brookhaven.

That might seem like a long way to some, but to a dream chaser like Ainsley Orr, it doesn’t feel nearly that far.