21-03-2025
Remarkable Women: Centenary's Emma Lavelle striving for excellence
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — This March, KTAL Sports wants to celebrate the remarkable female athletes across the Ark-La-Tex. One of the many impressive women is Centenary's Emma Lavelle.
The senior has dreamed of competing in college gymnastics since she was little, and since then the Mandeville native has become a vital part of the Centenary gymnastics program.
'It's a great feeling to know that you made it,' shared Lavelle. 'Little Emma wanted to go to college and I'm here and proud of it. '…'Division III is very special to me, because we're here because we love the sport. There's no money involved. We're all here dedicated to the sport and our academics which is really cool culture to build.'
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'I got here her sophomore year,' remembered Centenary gymnastics head coach Dr. Meg Crowley. 'She got voted by her teammates to be a team captain as a sophomore, which is big time. We had six seniors that year and they still elected her as one of the team captains.'
Lavelle's not just successful when it comes to gymnastics though, the senior is planning to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering.
'When I first came (to Centenary) I was dead set on physical therapy,' recalled Lavelle. 'I realized we have the dual degree program, so I could pursue engineering once I graduated from here. That's when I started getting interested in Biomedical Engineering. Then prosthesis and physical therapy kind of go hand-in-hand, so that's why I was interested.'
Centenary offers a dual degree program that will allow Emma to pursue her BioMed Engineering degree after graduating from Centenary.
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That program also led to Emma interning at Washington University last summer prior to her senior year.
'I got to work in a cardiovascular lab,' explained Lavelle. 'I actually studied the development of cardiac organoids which were taking 2D cells and making them into a 3D ball.'
As the gymnastics season comes to an end and Emma prepares to close the door on her Centenary chapter, an exciting new journey awaits her as she pursues Biomedical Engineering at Wash-U.
'She's such a go-getter and she's always on top of her stuff,' elaborated Coach Crowley. 'She's very detail oriented, which is definitely what you need in that kind of a field. She attacks everything that she does with an intensity. I know that no matter what she goes into she's going to be crushing it.'
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