My life has consisted of triumph and tragedy surrounded by the aspect of being a student-athlete for as long as I could remember. I was born on February 7, 2001 I grew up in a significantly small town called Dearing in Georgia, which is 10 minutes away from my hometown Thomson, Georgia. I call Thomson my hometown because people never know where Dearing is, but then again nobody knows Thomson so I just say near Augusta.

My parents have been together for the majority of my 18 years of living which is such a blessing because lots of don’t get the experience of having both parents in their lives, let alone together. I grew up in Church thanks to my mom, and had learned for myself that Jesus truly is Lord. Without him there is no me. My dad is basically my twin because we look and think alike, but he taught me how to be a man. I am the youngest of 6 with four brothers and one sister. When you’re the last child it’s kind of boring, but you learn to love your own space.

I believe I came out the womb with a love and passion for sports that cannot be broken by any means. Playing sports is in my DNA and started with flag football in 2nd Grade at Dearing Elementary. I played for my local YMCA travel league for 2 years and was the league MVP for both years. I played youth basketball for about 3 years and became an all-star once learning the fundamentals. I then played a year of AAU (travel basketball). Then in middle school I was forced to take a 2 year hiatus from all sports because of my grades and behavior. This was a big step for me transitioning from the country to the city because a different school brought new teachers and kids. I became wild from being overwhelmed and didn’t get my act fully together until my 8th grade year.

This is when my track career started and kept me out of a lot of trouble. From then on I knew this is wanted to do for years to come. In the later spring I trained to try out for the 9th grade football team. I had previously been scared of playing football because of watching my older brothers, but I knew it was my time. Right before the season opener I got hurt and had to have surgery and was out for half the season. Basically, 9th grade season was trash; we went 1-7 but the varsity won the region and went deep in the playoffs. In Track my high school coach saw a world of potential through my work ethic but I hardly ran at meets because I was a freshman.

Sophomore year was much better as I started on JV football and played some varsity as a corner. This was a dream year for football as we were having a miracle undefeated season and made it to the state championship, but got manhandled by Cartersville. In track I became a great asset to the team as a sprinter and made it to the sectional.

Junior year I was anxious of being recruited and offers began to roll in. I decided to play another season of JV football and heavily played on varsity. We lost the region to our rivals Burke and fell to Blessed Trinity in the playoffs. In Track this would be the peak of my high school career as I broke personal records and my 4×1 relay team broke the school record which would have won us the region but we were ultimately screwed by our rival coaches cheating. As an individual I managed to make it to the state qualifiers in the 100m.

Senior year was to say the least a heartbreaker. Besides having some of the hardest classes, my senior season was screwed in football as I was battling injuries, we had a brand new coaching staff that didn’t care about us seniors, these injuries transferred to track which led to a torn hamstring. I thought my career was over, this was one of the most difficult moments of my life. God made a way and opened doors I had never seen before bringing more and more offers from smaller schools and here I am today competing at the collegiate level in track at Piedmont College. I plan to continue my college career and get my bachelors degree in sports communication. Never lose faith.