The Grind, presented by Bank of Clarendon: Conyers leads turnaround for Scott's Branch football

Two years ago, the Scott's Branch football team felt like it was wandering alone in the desert. The Eagles were winless and pretty far removed from playing competitive postseason football.

Last year, they found an oasis. New head coach Pat Fleming came to breathe life into the program, and he brought some reinforcements. Offensive Coordinator Mark Green brought an exciting new offense, and their transfer quarterback, Jaiven Conyers, was ready to execute it.

This influx of talent was no mirage. The Eagles grew as the season developed and won three region games, earning a trip to the postseason. Scott's Branch nearly punched their ticket to the second round but lost a 26-20 heartbreaker in overtime. This offseason, they were ready to take the next step. They're out to a 4-1 start and are about to face their biggest test, a matchup with SCHSL 1A powerhouse Cross for what may turn out to be the region championship game.

At the heart of the turnaround is their senior quarterback, who continues to silence doubters every step of the way.

"The biggest thing is his leadership," Pat said of what Jaiven brought to Scott's Branch. "When you don't have a good, established program, there aren't too many leaders. He brought leadership and the qualities that it takes to succeed, working hard and fitting in with the guys. I always tell them it's about the Eagle Way, no one is above the program, and he just blends in and is himself."

FINDING A LOVE FOR FOOTBALL

Jaiven's playing days started in Augusta, Georgia. At first, he was all in on baseball. When he was about seven years old, a few local football coaches saw him playing baseball and thought his arm talent could translate to the gridiron. Jaiven wasn't so sure.

"I hated football," Jaiven said, citing his dislike of being tackled. "I wanted to quit until I got to middle school."

Luckily for Scott's Branch, Jaiven stuck with it. He continued to grow in the sport but had a big change around the corner as he started high school. After his freshman year, his mom, Tykiesha Prince, was ready to move back home to Clarendon County. She gave him the choice to stay in Georgia or come to South Carolina. They both feel like he made the right call.

"His coaches really didn't want to lose him, but I was a teen mom, so it's always been us, so that separation, I think, is what really drove his decision to come to South Carolina," Tykiesha said.

Jaiven initially enrolled in his mom's alma mater, Manning High School. He was the JV quarterback, playing for Fleming and Green. Going into his junior year, Jaiven knew there was a senior quarterback, JaRae Mitchell, in front of him on the depth chart, so he wanted to consider his options. When Fleming and Green made the move to Scott's Branch, that decision got easier.

"Manning was great; it was definitely a change from Georgia. You've got most of the community watching one school, you get a lot of attention from people you know," Jaiven said. "It was cool at Manning, but I couldn't really coexist, my style and their playing style, and now I'm at Scott's Branch."

It was a no-brainer for Pat, too.

"We saw his arm talent, the things that he could do," Pat said. "Looking at the roster over here and seeing the athletes, the biggest thing was having someone who could distribute the ball and do all the things we need him to do. Just having someone who was familiar with the system, who could distribute the ball to get our guys in a position to make plays.

While Tykiesha would've loved to see her son thrive at her alma mater, she supported his decision 100%.

"I love a good underdog story," she said. "Coach Green knew what he had. He knew this boy's potential when he was starting on JV at Manning High School. Watching them make the decision to leave together, it was a really good choice for the both of them. They built that program around Jaiven, and he's doing exactly what they thought he would do."

SPARKING THE EAGLES

When Jaiven made the move to Scott's Branch, there was plenty of buzz around the new additions, but he knew a culture change wasn't going to happen overnight.

"They didn't know winning," he said. "I always have 'win' in my head. I go hard every day trying to win."

As the season developed, Scott's Branch started to find its footing. They got their first win in a 30-6 rout of Hemingway. They blasted St. John's 58-6 for their first region win. The Eagles finished the regular season with a 34-16 win over Military Magnet, setting up a date with Ridgeland in the first round of the playoffs. Jaiven was at the heart of it all. He passed for 1,165 yards and 13 touchdowns, adding five more scores on the ground.

That matchup had the chance to be the Eagles' introduction to the rest of SCHSL 1A. They opened the scoring with a punt-return touchdown and led 20-6 in the third quarter. After that, it was all Ridgeland, who forced overtime with two touchdowns before scoring the only points in OT.

"It was the playoff loss that broke our hearts," Jaiven said. "It made me want it even more; I know we could beat them. We shouldn't have been in overtime with them in the first place, and it won't happen again."

Throughout the offseason, Jaiven and the Eagles went to work. They were determined to become the best version of themselves this fall.

"It's very different," Jaiven said of the energy around the program during the offseason. "When I transferred to Scott's Branch, the whole summer it was maybe 13, 11 guys all summer. This summer, it was about 33 people all summer, a 7-on-7 team, a lot of extra work. I got to work out at Clemson with a couple of my guys."

Jaiven put in plenty of work outside of the program, as well. He has a personal quarterback coach, David Moore, and did plenty of traveling to compete in 7-on-7 tournaments.

"Getting up 6, 7 a.m., going out of state for 7-on-7, North Carolina, Tennessee, all over. He's just hungry for it, putting in that work for when the season comes back," Tykiesha said of her son's offseason. "He trains about an hour and a half away out in Mount Pleasant. Early mornings, two- or three-hour sessions with David Moore; he's really been putting in the work, and he's locked in."

Pat saw his quarterback taking charge as the Eagles fought to take that next step.

"I told the guys during the offseason that we have the potential to be good sooner than later. It usually takes a few years to build a program, but I felt like, if those kids really bought into it and just do the little things that we could be successful like we are right now," Pat said. "Jaiven, he didn't like to lift weights at first, but he really had a great summer. He bought into everything, got bigger, faster and stronger. We had a lot of joint practices during June, and we really started seeing him take the next step, along with the rest of the team. I told him we're only going as far as he leads us, and he's leading us in the right direction, so it's good to see it unfolding in front of my eyes."

OVERCOMING A SLOW START

The Eagles felt like they had all the momentum in the world this offseason. Then the games actually started, and Scott's Branch got smacked in the mouth.

Scott's Branch opened the year with their annual county matchups and got thumped 39-0 by East Clarendon in their season opener. The loss was an important dose of humility right out of the gate.

"It was a huge reality check. We went in there sleeping," Jaiven said. "It woke us up."

The Eagles came back with another county game, Jaiven's old school. He did a little bit of chirping heading into the matchup but backed up the talk with a huge 40-38 win, the first by Scott's Branch over Manning in decades.

"I love talking my smack. Before the game, we were at Cook Out talking to those boys," Jaiven said. "They said what they were going to do, we said what we were going to do. I guess we're the ones that did it."

The smack talk carried into the following week, too.

"I didn't put it behind me right away. I came to school with a Manning shirt on and posted it on my Instagram story," Jaiven said.

The win came with plenty of emotions for Tykiesha, who was more than happy to watch her alma mater take a loss if it meant her son was thriving.

"The victory against Manning was everything," she said. "That's my alma mater; I was born a Monarch, I'm gonna die a Monarch, but watching them defeat Manning was everything because he does feel like Manning might've fumbled him, they let him get away. It didn't feel like reality. Watching him celebrate was just amazing."

Outside of the gloating, Jaiven knew the victory was just the Eagles' first goal of the season and not the most important.

"In reality, it's just another game. I had to put points on the board, and that's what we did," he said. "It definitely jumped our confidence. My guys have been playing with a different kind of mindset, showing more leadership throughout the school."

And the Eagles keep winning. They followed the victory with their first win over a ranked team, beating Lake View 22-18. They added two more wins after that, a 26-8 win over Branchville before a 54-0 win over St. John's. Jaiven went into the Eagles' bye week with 1,140 passing yards and 15 touchdowns against just one interception, nearly surpassing his full-season totals from last fall. He's also rushed for 181 yards and three scores, though he prefers to sit back in the pocket and let his receivers eat.

"I let my receivers do all the work," Jaiven quipped. "I need a deep ball, I go to Keith Rogers; I need a first down, I go to Christian Green; I need any kind of YAC (yards after catch), I go to Nyren Bowman. I can hand the ball off to Quintin Jackson, and he can take it for 50 yards.

"The fun part about it is knowing (that) no defense can cover all my guys. Someone is going to be open, if not more."

While Scott's Branch has already reached a few milestones this season, their most important test comes on Friday. The Eagles will make the trip to Cross and try to upset the 1A powerhouse. The defense will have to try to bottle up star receiver Caden Ramsey, the Trojans' South Carolina commit, but Jaiven and the Eagles are ready for the opportunity to prove they're one of the teams to beat in 1A.

"We want them to sleep," Jaiven said of Cross. "We've been showing all year that we can compete. If they keep sleeping, we're going to take over. There's going to be eyes there."

Pat thinks his team is ready to rise to the occasion. They put in all this work in the offseason to prepare for this moment.

"I harp on these guys, tell them, 'You can't shine without the grind. If the grind's hard enough, eventually it'll be your time to shine. When the time presents itself, be willing to walk through the door and accept all the good things that happen from hard work,'" Pat said.

LOOKING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Jaiven hopes to continue his football career in college, though he's still not sure where that will be quite yet. Pat thinks Friday's game could be an important first step to grabbing the attention of some college coaches.

"It's like I tell him all the time, the more you win, the more attention you garner," the Eagles' head coach said. "Right now, we're continuing to do the little things. Like this week, they have the Ramsey kid, who's a South Carolina commit, so they're going to have scouts looking at that film, so we want to execute, do all the little things, play fundamentally sound and play four good quarters of football."

Jaiven plans to win a ring at the end of the year, which he thinks would be enough to swoon any college coaches with questions about his game. At the end of the day, he'll do whatever it takes to get to the next level.

"We're winning a ring," he said confidently. "I'll work as hard as I need to. I know what I'm capable of; I hope a coach can see it, too."

No matter what comes next, Tykiesha will be in his corner every step of the way.

"We are definitely a dynamic duo. It's a real sacrifice, but because he loves it, I love it," she said. "We've been doing this since Jaiven was seven, and I can probably count on two hands how many games I've missed. I have been his rock, so what I'm doing now is nothing different than what I've been doing. Now I'm just getting to see all of our hard work paid off. It's been a long road for us, so now that he's here and, in my opinion, he's a DI prospect, it's amazing. I'm very grateful to have him, and he's very grateful to have me. It's a sacrifice, but it's a rewarding one."