By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Diamond Moore’s path as a track and field athlete has taken twists and turns. The Cummings senior has decided on her next stop.
That will be competing in college for Jacksonville State University in Alabama.
“My track journey has been a roller-coaster,” Moore said.
It also has been wildly successful. Moore, a jumper and hurdler, has been part of four team state championships for the Cavaliers in indoor and outdoor seasons combined.
Yet there was a detour along the way. After her freshman season, redistricting in the Alamance-Burlington School System left the Burlington resident in the Graham district. That’s not what her mother, Tynia Jones, had intended.
In order to stay at Cummings, Moore would need to wait through a 365-day period before competing again in athletics. But staying under the tutelage of veteran coach Donnie Davis was part of that sacrifice.
Davis made extensive pleas to have Moore’s eligibility reinstated, but that didn’t pan out.
Jones said it was important for her daughter to stay at Cummings, where she was comfortable. Two of Moore’s siblings are Cummings graduates.
“This is what she knew,” Jones said. “I felt the redistricting would have set her back.”
For most of her sophomore year, Moore was able to compete in meets unattached, meaning she wasn’t part of a team nor could she wear Cummings gear in those competitions.
Then in the spring during the outdoor season, her eligibility status changed when ABSS altered some parameters. So she competed in the rest of the spring season.
She tallied 26½ points in that 2024 outdoor meet on the Cummings championship team in Class 2-A. She received the Sportsmanship Award in that classification for the first of two times.
Moore said her favorite event is the long jump, which she won in the Class 2-A state outdoor meets in 2024 and 2025. She also has placed in state meets in triple jump, hurdles, and relays.
Davis said Moore’s growth in the sport has been tremendous since he first saw her compete for Broadview Middle School.
“She wasn’t somebody who you would identify as a natural,” he said.
But she had a willingness to try various events and a determination to improve, traits that endeared her to the coach.
“He had a vision in me,” Moore said.
She has repaid that in her team-first approach, sometimes competing through pain to pick up extra points.
“That’s the effect of an athlete who has her teammates in mind,” Davis said.
Moore, also a former Cummings cheerleader, said she liked Jacksonville State’s consistency during the recruiting process.
And now with a few months left to compete in high school, Moore said it has worked out.
“It made it all worth it,” she said.
Indoor meet results
Kaili Payne of Cummings ran a personal-best and meet-record time of 8.15 seconds to win the 55-meter hurdles in Saturday’s Just Don’t Lose Classic in Winston-Salem.
Teammate D’Anna Cotton was sixth in 8.47.
Cotton set a meet record in the triple jump at 39 feet, ½-inch. Payne was fourth at 35-4½.
In the long jump, Cotton placed third (18-3) and Payne was eighth (17-1).
