{"id":26047,"date":"2018-07-05T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=26047"},"modified":"2018-07-05T02:10:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T07:10:50","slug":"apsu-junior-brinna-lavelle-to-represent-team-usa-university-at-international-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2018\/07\/05\/apsu-junior-brinna-lavelle-to-represent-team-usa-university-at-international-games\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU junior Brinna Lavelle to represent Team USA, university at international games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin Peay State University<\/h2>\n

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – You need only a few minutes with Brinna Lavelle to know why she\u2019s a world-class judo athlete representing Team USA and Austin Peay State University this month in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Her attitude might be more powerful than her hip throws.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/a>

Austin Peay State Univesity junior Brinna Lavelle will represent Team USA and the university later this month at the FISU America Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Lavelle trains six days a week. She runs and lifts weights. She fights. And she travels on weekends to faraway cities like Chicago and Miami to train with Olympians and judo sensei.<\/p>\n

But she\u2019s also a full-time junior at Austin Peay, majoring in biology with a concentration in pre-veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll drive to Miami,\u201d dad David Lavelle said. \u201cShe\u2019ll train. We\u2019ll drive back and get back here by 8 o\u2019clock Monday morning, and by 9:30 she\u2019s back in class. She works really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where Brinna\u2019s attitude shines, and how it has lifted her to Team USA and to the International University Sports Federation (FISU) America Games in Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n

\"APSU<\/a>

APSU Brinna Lavelle grapples with MiMi Bowen at Bowen Combative Arts Academy in Clarksville. Lavelle trains six days a week and travels on weekends for master-level coaching.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIf I want something, I really have to work for it,\u201d she said, her smile bolstering the truth in the statement.<\/p>\n

Brinna\u2019s attitude was on full display recently as she struggled through a zoology class. The professor was tough on her, she said.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cBut then I realized this is what life is about, I have to put in the work and push myself fully to get the grade that I want, so I worked really hard, and I pulled out an A.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brinna, 20, has been working hard at judo since she was 3, after her military dad settled the family in Clarksville. She started competing nationally and internationally when she was 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad originally made me do judo when I was little to defend myself because he knew I\u2019d be small,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t want to do it, but I\u2019ve come to love it ever since the first couple of classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it all my life. It\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever known. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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