Loyola track and field commit is artistically gifted

Jonathan Moody is an exceptional athlete, and he has the track record to prove it.

A district champion for St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, La. in the track and field javelin event, Moody placed fourth in the Region 3-5A Championship his senior year and came within 20 feet of qualifying for NAIA Nationals.

He runs the 200 and 400-meter sprints and has even signed a letter of intent to continue his athletic career at Loyola University New Orleans – a Catholic institution right in his hometown.

But don’t stigmatize Moody as just a thrower, a runner, or an athlete. This future member of the LOYNO Wolfpack has big plans for his collegiate career and beyond.

“I was drawn to Loyola because of their great athletic program and their diverse art program,” Moody said. “After viewing the great student artwork done by young artists at Loyola, I knew I could become better and knew it was the place for me.”

To enhance his artistic abilities during his high school days, Moody pulled double duty, studying half the day at St. Augustine, and spending the other half at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) – a regional, pre-professional arts training center that offers secondary school-age children intensive instruction in dance, media arts, music (classical, jazz, vocal), theatre arts (drama, musical theatre, theatre design), visual arts, and creative writing, while demanding simultaneous excellence from its students.

Moody was chosen to participate in this selective program after submitting his work and getting through a strenuous audition process, which is historically competitive. He attests his success in balancing athletics and the pursuit of an art education to his high school track coach.

“Staying involved with athletics has helped me focus and helped me to deal with other people,” Moody said. “Our (track) coach was very encouraging in both track and then definitely in school. In order to stay in NOCCA, you have to maintain a certain GPA, and coach helped me do that.”

As for college, Moody’s goals are stupendously similar, and ones that Andy Canegitta – Moody’s track coach at Loyola – will certainly be able to get on board with.

“I’ve always wanted to graduate college at the top of my class and be the valedictorian,” said Moody. “After that? I want to try and make a difference in New Orleans. Maybe use some giant paintings in the city to help people deal with and address issues like the oil spill and the economy.”

Moody, who also envisions graduate art school in New York, his own studio, and working with animation and design in movies, referenced his Catholic education and recognizes the impact it had on his development – an impact he is hoping to both make and have occur again during his time at Loyola.

Said Moody: “If I had been accepted into a non-Catholic college, I might have considered it, but I probably would have tried to find and chosen a Catholic university. (A school being Catholic) does play a little factor in to everything.”

For more information on Loyola University New Orleans track and field, visit wolfpack.loyno.edu.