Powell-Qualo overcomes injury to earn college commitment

A knee injury forced Avylina Powell-Qualo to the sidelines in the middle of her senior basketball season. It’s causing her to miss her entire senior track season. But it isn’t ending her athletic career.
Despite her injury, Powell-Qualo has won the opportunity to play basketball and run track in college, and she committed last week to compete at Evangel University next season. Coach Tori Mooneyham, who has been alongside Powell-Qualo for both sports for the past four seasons, said Powell-Qualo simply refused to let her dream die.
“A lot of kids would have just given up, but she was determined to get that scholarship,” Mooneyham said. “She was reaching out to schools...and she was going to make that happen.”
Powell-Qualo said she maintained hope for college sports after talking to
others who’d suffered the same injury.
“I just know an ACL is one of the most common injuries, so... I talked to a lot of people that have had it before and they’re like, ‘Do not give up. You will come back stronger than you ever were.’ That really helped me get in the mindset of ‘I’m not done yet.’”
Basketball coach Kris Flood said it’s been a “won- derful thing” to be able to coach Powell-Qualo. “This kid’s got a tremendous amount of faith and she has a tremendous work ethic. There’s no doubt in my mind that she will bounce back and she’s going to be a great grab for Evangel University.”
Powell-Qualo finished as state runner-up in the high jump last season and holds the school record at 5’6”, which she set in 2017. She’s also part of two other records as part of two relay teams in the 4x200m and
4x400m relays. In addition to her track
accomplishments, she was a big part of the basketball team’s success in recent years. Even after being in- jured at mid-season, she was a spiritual and emotional leader for the Lady Tigers on their run to the final four last winter.
The opportunity to play basketball in addition to running track was an im- portant consideration for Powell-Qualo, who said she passed up a track offer from Missouri State because of her love of basketball.
“I love both, but I wouldn’t be able to just give up bas- ketball because I’ve been playing that since I was little,” she said. “Getting to that college level is really exciting, because I know it’s going to be a lot more intense.”
Evangel track coach Ed- ward Sands said he first be- came aware of Powell-Qualo when she sent him an email about attending Evangel.
“Our basketball coach was really high on her. Talking to Coach Mooneyham, she said this is probably
one of the best athletes and [people] she’s ever coached,” said Sands. “When you get high praise, especially from an EU almuni (Mooneyham), you’ve got to really look into
it and really take interest in it. It turns out, she was right about her so far. I really like the person I’ve gotten to know throughout this process.”