BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnast Kelly Phelan and tennis player Colt Gaston spoke to students at Most Blessed Sacrament on Wednesday afternoon as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
Phelan and Gaston spoke to the students about their experience in athletics and also about alcohol, drugs and tobacco. Most Blessed Sacrament is participating the Wise Mind Alcohol/Drug/Tobacco Prevention Program, a two-year research study coordinated by Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
A sophomore from Orlando, Fla., Phelan was a solid competitor for LSU last season, finishing in the top 20 in both the beam and the floor exercise at the NCAA Championships.
Gaston is a sophomore from Rome, Ga., on the men’s tennis team and advanced to the round of 64 at the recent ITA-Wilson Southeast Regional Championships.
The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program honored one of LSU’s most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.