Doing it all at AAU Jr. Olympics
Published 10:08 pm Friday, July 15, 2011
![council1](https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2011/07/council1.jpg)
King’s Fork Middle School’s Nellybell Council plays football and basketball for the Jaguars. In the summer, she’s a veteran of AAU track and field and the AAU Junior Olympic Games. Council’s made the 2011 AAU Jr. Olympics in the pentathlon, 100-meter hurdles, long jump and shot put. The Games are in New Orleans, La. from July 29-Aug. 6
It’s fitting Nellybell Council will be competing in the pentathlon at the AAU Junior Olympics in New Orleans in a couple weeks.
In addition to doing some of everything when it comes to track and field, Council plays the saxophone in the King’s Fork Middle School Band, is the point guard for the KFMS basketball team and a couple other local basketball squads and is a top-notch student.
If that wasn’t enough to stay busy, on the gridiron Council plays wide receiver for the Suffolk Titans in the fall and King’s Fork Middle in the spring. Playing on both sides of the ball, she made several tackles for both squads last season.
Council, 13, qualified for the Junior Olympic Games with her performances in the AAU Track and Field Regional National Qualifying meet earlier this month in Hampton.
With the Suffolk Stars club, Council qualified in three individual events, the 100-meter hurdles, the long jump and the shot put. Those three events plus the 800-meter run and the high jump make up the pentathlon. Council placed second in the region to go on to New Orleans in the pentathlon, too.
The Junior Olympics officially open on July 30, although Council and the pentathletes will start their competition a day earlier.
In last summer’s AAU Junior Olympic Games, Council finished No. 20 in the country in a field of 41 athletes in the pentathlon.
On the basketball court, Council plays for the AAU Suffolk Lady Blazers and in the Norfolk State University Gang Prevention Awareness Program.
In the classroom, she’s a rising eighth grader and takes enrichment classes at KFMS. She earned the highest score possible on the Pre-Algebra SOL Test thanks to her teacher, Tasha Epps.