ANNA DAVIS

TFS CLASS OF 2018

goes far beyond the track.

Neal’s impact on Davis

“One of the biggest things he did for me from the beginning is believe in me,” states Davis. “Even when I was in middle school, he would always tell me that I was going to be capable of amazing things one day and pushed me to set goals for myself. He introduced me to what it is like to work hard and be rewarded for that hard work in competition. The confidence he had in me and confidence he built in me through competing early on in my track career is why I wanted to keep running as I got older and in college. He taught me to strive for excellence. As a track athlete the sport itself is a challenge, and having ran sub-1:00 in the 400 hurdles, placed second, and found out I was going to get to compete at the NCAA East Preliminary round of the NCAA Championships.”

Following her stint at Davidson, Davis went to Northeastern as a graduate student to pursue an advanced degree in psychology.

“I knew I wasn’t ready to be done with track, so I began the long, almost puzzle-like process of finding a school that would be the best fit,” states Davis. “I knew I only had one year of eligibility, did not have any specific plans for graduate school before deciding to do a fifth year so I looked for schools with a one-year graduate program in psychology. It was an amazing opportunity to experience something new, get my master’s degree, and have another year of competing with a new team.” a coach that has such high expectations for excellence on and off the track was even more of a challenge at times. However, looking back at it, I think those challenges and expectations Coach Neal set for me are what allowed me to have success and shaped my character as an individual the most.”

With a Master of Science in Applied Psychology degree in hand, and a spectacular career on the track now in the rearview mirror, the future is brighter than ever for Davis.

At Davidson, Davis broke the 100- and 400-meter hurdle records and had a fantastic four-year run with numerous accolades and honors while majoring in psychology on a premed track.

“Being a student athlete at Davidson was an incredible experience,” adds Davis. “My favorite memory was at the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship my junior year because I finally

“I still hope to go to medical school in the next few years, so I am starting a job this summer at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston in order to get some experience I missed out on as a student athlete and due to the pandemic in the middle of my college experience,” says Davis. “Although unfortunately my time as a track and field athlete is over, I am eager to begin my own journey as an athlete. I plan to get into distance running and have just started training for my first 5K!”

The mentality it takes to compete at a high level in track and field is now part of her DNA and will continue to be an intricate thread throughout everything she does in life.

As a junior at Tallulah Falls School, Alia Bly and her classmate Sophie Alexander found research on particle physics and took them to chemistry teacher Beth Huebner’s room to try and explain them to her. “We would use the conversions that we learned in her class to convert between very inane things, but Mrs. Huebner would happily review our sheets of theoretical conversions between kilojoules and bananas,” Bly said.

Even though chemistry was difficult, Bly developed an understanding of how struggling could make her stronger. “Mrs. Heubner – she was fantastic. I still text her when I do something cool in chemistry.” Mrs Huebner saw that Bly never quit. “She had a drive, she was going to get it,” Huebner said. “She always brought in interesting ideas and applied them to the real world.”