COLUMBIA, S.C. — When Aly Conyers approaches the starting line for a track meet, the sounds of fans and competition are not what are on her mind.
“Sometimes I can hear my mom; sometimes I can hear my dad, it really just depends, but I’m trying to think about getting to the finish line first,” Conyers said.
Conyers, the girl’s track captain at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, often does just that.
“Aly has finished the 2021 school year with the fastest girls 400-meter time in the state of South Carolina,” Coach Willis Ware said, “and that includes both public and private school runners.”
She’s also earned a record in 200- and 100-meter runs, according to Ware. The sport has become like second nature, after starting in just the fourth grade.
“My dad always encouraged me to run and do track, and he was actually a distance runner,” Conyers said.
While also a National Honor Society member, it’s not just her work on the track or in the classroom that’s catching the attention of others, but her activism as well.
Over the summer, she participated in and organized social justice marches in Washington D.C. following the death of George Floyd.
“After our first march… we created Faces of the Future and since then we’ve had voter registration drives, tampon drives,” Conyers said. “My dad really kind of introduced me to understanding my history…. He encouraged me to read educational books on … historical black figures that we don’t really talk about much in school.”
Her work didn’t go unnoticed, earning her a $20,000 scholarship for her community activism and athleticism, paying off the remainder of her upcoming four-year tenure at The University of California, Berkeley.
“It feels great, definitely a weight off my parents’ shoulders,” Conyers said. “I want to be in a good place, so that I can attend law school.”
Her message to others now is to go for what you want.
“A lot of times we’re afraid of messing up, even in track going out too hard,” Conyers said. “Never let yourself get in the way and trust who you are, trust your knowledge in a subject, and fight for what you believe in.”