Passing the Torch

ADREANNA PARLETTE’17 passing the Torch

“St. Cecilia Academy is a constant reminder of who I am, what I deserve in this world, and where I started my great relationship with Christ,” declares

Adreanna Parlette ’17. She credits SCA for giving her the building blocks to succeed – academically, spiritually, and personally – and gain the mindset of a champion.

Even before they enrolled as students, Adreanna and her twin sister, Bella ’17, knew about St. Cecilia from their aunt, Hadiya Housepian, who graduated from SCA in 2009. The girls were encouraged by their family to strive for excellence and to make

education a priority. When they both chose to attend SCA, Adreanna and Bella found high school to be a training ground where they could mature and excel in different ways – Bella in dance and Spanish and Adreanna in choir and athletics. “St. Cecilia pushed me to do everything,” recalls Adreanna. In addition to challenging herself academically, she got involved in theater guild and choir, which gave her the organizational and time management skills she would need in college and beyond. Her athletic ability also began to blossom during high school, where she distinguished herself as one of the top track athletes in the region and state in high jump, long jump, and 100 meter hurdles.

It was at St. Cecilia that Adreanna also discovered the Catholic faith. She distinctly remembers the moment in religion class when one of the sisters was teaching about the Gospel call to forgive one’s enemies, a message she had never really heard before. She was captivated by this life-changing truth, and from that time she began to pray and ask serious questions about her own faith. As she deepened in her relationship with Christ, Adreanna decided to go through the RCIA program her junior year. At the Easter Vigil she was baptized and received into the Catholic Church. Adreanna continues to live her Catholic faith and says she could not have gotten through the challenges of recent years without God, adding, “My foundation remains strong and my faith ever present, something that developed at SCA!” After graduation, Adreanna received a scholarship to run at Jacksonville University in Florida, but she did not have the experience she hoped for there. In 2019, her SCA mentor Coach Marchetti encouraged her to transfer back to Nashville. She did, and with a move to Belmont University came a new confidence and a new chapter in her athletic career. After only one indoor winter track season at Belmont, the pandemic hit. Yet Adreanna used the months during Covid to focus on building up her strength and mental focus. The work paid off as she entered a very successful 2021 spring season in which she was named the 2021 Ohio Valley Conference Female Field Athlete of the Year, winning the long jump, finishing second in the heptathlon, fourth in the 110-meter hurdles, and seventh in the high jump. Her performance at the conference championships qualified her for the NCAA Regionals where she set Belmont University records in the long jump, 100 meter hurdles, and heptathlon. Not only was Adreanna’s confidence back, but she was performing at an even higher level of excellence.

Last summer word quickly spread in the SCA community that Adreanna would be competing in the long jump for one of three spots on the United States Olympic Team. In June the SCA community was abuzz as teachers, friends, and family tuned in to watch Adreanna compete at the U.S. Olympic team trials in Eugene, Oregon. Among a field of the twenty-four best women track and field athletes in the country, Adreanna finished 17th. It was thrilling to see this St. Cecilia girl gather her confidence and drive to compete at an Olympic-qualifying level, achieving even beyond her own expectations. After this experience she said, “I was competing against the best of the best. I didn’t feel any pressure. I felt like I belonged.”

After finishing her undergraduate degree in the spring of 2021, Adreanna is now pursuing a master’s degree at The University of Oklahoma in Human Relations Management while she continues to train for competition. When she reflects about her experience at St. Cecilia, Adreanna says, “SCA gave me the platform and the tools to succeed, no doubt about it. The confidence, faith, and resilience I developed there have gotten me through the toughest obstacles. SCA really has a lot to offer beyond the rigorous scholastics. By embracing my experience to the fullest, I left with so much!”

“I was competing against the best of the best. I didn’t feel any pressure. I felt like