When Rheagan Courville and Lloimincia Hall take the mat in gymnastics meets, both women seem superhuman. They fly through the air, moving in seemingly impossible ways as they flip, spin and jump across the floor, flawlessly executing their choreographed routines. They are simultaneously powerful and graceful, moving through amazing feats of athletic ability with ease and elegance. While watching them perform, it is hard to imagine that both women are anything but supernatural.
Off the mat, Courville and Hall are like many other LSU students. Courville is anxious about graduating and feels she can be too hard on herself sometimes. Hall misses her family, who live in Dallas, Texas, and she tries her best to live each day keeping in mind the ideals that her father instilled in her. Before practice, both girls chatted with their friends on the team, laughing and joking. Courville took deep breaths as she looked around the practice space, trying to take it all in.
“It’s sad that I’m already a junior,” Courville said. “I wish this could last forever.”
Courville, a 20-year-old Baton Rouge native, feels her entire life has led up to her time on the LSU gymnastics team. She began gymnastics lessons at the age of 5; within seven years of her first lesson, Courville was competing as an elite gymnast.
“I literally cannot recall one memory in my life that gymnastics is not the center of,” she said, laughing.
That intense training has allowed Courville to become one of the most celebrated athletes in the history of LSU gymnastics. Her freshman season, Courville led her teammates in individual event titles, nabbing 17. Last year she earned three gold medals at the SEC Championship, was named SEC Gymnast of the year and became one of only six gymnasts to win an individual national title in LSU history.
Despite all of her successes, Courville still sometimes finds it difficult to be confident on the mat. As a self-described perfectionist, Courville tries her hardest to execute every routine flawlessly. When something goes wrong, she is her own harshest critic.
“I’m really hard on myself sometimes, and it’s already a hard enough sport that you just have to make sure you don’t beat yourself up,” she said.
Luckily, Courville always has her family around to remind her of her triumphs. “My dad always tells me to congratulate the girl in the mirror, because she works so hard. And I do. I have to.”
As the daughter of a pastor, gymnastics has never come first for Lloimincia Hall. Her family values were always “Christ first, academics second, gymnastics third,” Hall said.
“It was a privilege to do gymnastics in my home.”
Hall did not take that privilege for granted; she graduated from high school with high honors, as a member of the Nation Society of High School Scholars and as an elite gymnast who held the Texas State all-around title.
In addition to teaching her to value faith and academic service, Hall’s family also instilled in her the importance of giving back to the community. Each Wednesday, Hall volunteers by teaching spiritual dance at Greater Mount Olive church. Hall choreographs dances for the young women of the church to perform during services and loves giving back in a way that combines her spirituality and her creative training. She loves working with the children of her church, and says they love working with her too.
“They are very supportive,” Hall said about her students. “They come to the meets, and they get to see some of the moves they do in church in my floor routines.”
Much like spiritual dances, Hall’s floor routines are an electric combination of spirit and soul, mixing typical gymnastics moves with a flair that is uniquely Hall’s. For her junior season, Hall decided to use music for her floor routine that tells the story of who she is. Her routine is performed to a mix of gospel music and upbeat R&B throwbacks, combining Hall’s love for both her family and her faith.
The combination has been a winning one. Hall has established herself as one of the best floor performers in LSU history, scoring two perfect 10s during her sophomore season; she is one of only six LSU gymnasts to record two or more perfect 10s, and the first to do it in the same season since 2008. Hall attributes these successes to God.
“With floor, I take Lloimincia out and put Christ in, and things just come so much more naturally through Him.”
The 2014 Gymnastics season is shaping up to be one of the best in LSU history. On Feb. 28, the team posted a score of 198, a record for LSU. Hall has already posted two perfect 10s with her famous floor routine, and Courville has earned a 10 on vault. Courville is adamant that the best is yet to come for LSU gymnastics. Her biggest goal is to win a national title for her team, and she feels that this will be the year she achieves that goal.
“Thus far we’ve accomplished so many of our goals that we just want to stay confident. It’s all been coming together up to this point, and we’re all in for this one goal, and we’re not going to stop until we get there.”
Off the Mat
By Logan Anderson
March 30, 2014
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