When Kent Island senior and two-sport athlete Carley Dare was young, her parents divorced and it was a challenging experience for her and brother Casey. She still feels the ramifications of it to this day and has wanted to be a family attorney “most of my life.” In pursuit of this goal, Dare will major in pre-law at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.
“I want to help other families that have children,” she says. “And help children get through it. I want to let them understand everything will okay in the long run and make sure the parents are comfortable doing that to their children.”
While Dare is at Slippery Rock, she will compete in both indoor track and track and field for the Division II The Rock. Dare thinks she can have an impact early in her athletic career. “I played a ton of sports growing up, but the one I stuck with was track and field.” she says. “I have been running since the seventh grade. There’s nothing like it. The team, the families, the coaches, and other athletes you meet. It just all fits into place.”
Frostburg State University, Lebanon Valley College, and Ohio Central College also recruited her. But Dare picked Slippery Rock for two reasons.
“When I talked to the coach, I really ended up liking him and the program they have built for athletes,” she explains. “I like their past record. I also ended up touring the campus and learned more about their educational programs, which I really liked as well.”
Slippery Rock coach John Papa is excited to have her on the track teams. “She is a good fit for here.” Papa says. “She wants to work hard. She has a lot of potential and I think, ultimately, she will be able to really help us.”
The 5-foot-5-inch Dare, who carries a 3.25 grade-point average, is already working out like a college athlete. She plans to train five days a week, running an hour each day and lifting weights another hour and a half. “I have to put the work in day in and day out,” she says. “I have to push myself and be able to keep up with my team members and not let them down.”
Kent Island Track and Field Coach Justin Holland called the 17-year-old Dare one of the best leaders he’s worked with in his 21 years on the job. She co-captained the indoor and outdoor track team this year.
“She is very vocal,” he says. “If I ask her to do something or talk to a teammate, she will make sure it gets done. She is very fiery. She definitely wants to help the younger teammates out. When the freshmen and sophomores come in, she definitely takes them under her wing.”
Dare also has contributed to Kent Island’s success with her performance in individual events and relays. She ran a leg on the 1,600-meter relay team that finished second in the Class 2A East Regional championships. That performance advanced the team onto states. Last spring, Dare won regular-season meets in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and her 1,600-meter relay team captured first-place honors in both the Nesbit Pinkett Relays and the Kent Island Invitational.
In every meet, Dare competes in two relays and two individual events. “She has worked very hard for four years,” Holland says. “She is a workhorse for us. She has helped us get the championships we have had the past few years.”
