{"id":17837,"date":"2026-04-09T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=17837"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:32:00","slug":"from-the-ground-up-live-oaks-girls-powerlifters-evolve-into-state-champions-geauxpreps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldbodybuildingnews.com\/?p=17837","title":{"rendered":"From the Ground Up: Live Oak\u2019s girls powerlifters evolve into state champions – GeauxPreps"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by William Weathers \/\/ GeauxPreps.com Contributor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
WATSON<\/strong> \u2013 The 2024 LHSAA\u2019s state powerlifting championships were conducted without Live Oak coach Cash Littlefield present on the state\u2019s biggest stage because he didn\u2019t have anyone competing. The year before, in his first season, the Lady Eagles had one participant.<\/p>\n
While the first two years of Littlefield\u2019s tenure were rather nondescript, he continued to mold his program with better days ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live Oak had four state qualifiers last year \u2013 three freshmen and a sophomore \u2013 and the Lady Eagles wound up tied for seventh in the team standings with St. Amant. West Monroe was the state champion with 40 points.<\/p>\n
For a former baseball assistant at Union Parish who took over the school\u2019s powerlifting program four years ago, Littlefield experienced the ecstasy that comes with watching a state championship unfold.<\/p>\n
Live Oak sent 10 lifters to LHSAA\u2019s state championships, where the Division I portion of the meet took place on March 28 and crowned a new state champion.<\/p>\n
For the first time in school history, Live Oak, led by a trio of three individual state champions, compiled 79 points to edge defending champion West Monroe (77), followed by Destrehan (71), Covington (64), and Denham Springs (43).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really happy for the girls,\u201d Littlefield said. \u201cThey\u2019re an emotional group. They\u2019re a really fun group. If you come into their (athletics) class at third hour, you may see line dancing. You might hear rock and roll or rap. They\u2019re always going to have fun. They wear their emotions on their sleeves.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The state championship was the second in the school\u2019s history, where Live Oak\u2019s softball team won the Class 4A state title in 1995.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many tears,\u201d Littlefield said. \u201cGetting to see them celebrate and knowing they had done something special for Live Oak that hadn\u2019t been done by any team in a long time was really special. It was special for me because it was the senior group that had started with me. All of the girls helped contribute. It was really awesome to see. They love and support each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Live Oak\u2019s girls had one qualifier in Littlefield\u2019s first year and none the following year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have anybody lifting, so I didn\u2019t go,\u201d Littlefield said of the 2024 state meet. \u201cTo see the girls winning a state championship, there\u2019s nothing I did different. They\u2019re good lifters. They worked their butts off.<\/p>\n
The eventual cornerstones of the program \u2013 Kaila Maher, Brynn Catalano, and Jenna Robertson \u2013 were freshmen who were a part of last year\u2019s team that had two of eight seniors join them at the state championships.<\/p>\n
Robertson was the 198-pound state runner-up with 935 total pounds. The Lady Eagles also had Catalano in third at 123 pounds (825 total weight), and Maher was fourth at 97 pounds (550). Sophomore Kyla Scott was another key member, finishing in eighth at 114 pounds (620).<\/p>\n
The Lady Eagles fed off the momentum created by last year\u2019s team, and Littlefield was generating the kind of synergy that paid off with more than 70 lifters \u2013 boys and girls \u2013 in his program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew we had some talented girls,\u201d Littlefield said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live Oak added a couple of key pieces that weren\u2019t part of the program the previous season.<\/p>\n
Junior Lilli Jeansonne was a track-specific athlete whom Littlefield became intrigued with during her track workouts. Another junior, Harmonee Lafayette, also joined this year\u2019s team and both contributed to the team\u2019s overall success.<\/p>\n
District powerlifting titles are determined by the combined efforts of the boys and girls, which Live Oak won, setting the stage for the program\u2019s memorable run.<\/p>\n
The girls were actually the district\u2019s third top team, but the Lady Eagles are part of a competitive group that includes Denham Springs, Dutchtown, and St. Amant.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and (Denham Springs coach) Joe Ryan joked that winning district is harder than winning regionals,\u201d Littlefield said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live Oak outpointed parish rival Denham Springs to win the East Regional crown, adding to its momentum from district competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really turned it on at regionals,\u201d Littlefield said. \u201cThey had a great performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Littlefield was part of the football coaching staff at Union Parish in Farmerville before taking his current position at Live Oak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Farmers have long been a staple of success under head coach Joe Spatafora, whose programs incurred back-to-back Class 3A state runner-up finishes to Madison Prep in 2020 and Sterlington in \u201921.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always heard to win a state championship, so many things have got to go your way,\u201d Littlefield said. \u201cI realized that at Union. The ball didn\u2019t bounce our way a couple of times and bounced Sterlington\u2019s way (26-24 victory). If they didn\u2019t do video replay in the Superdome, we win a state championship. In the 14 games prior to the Superdome, that\u2019s a catch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Littlefield was cautiously optimistic about his team\u2019s chances at the school\u2019s first state championship when Live Oak was the projected winner coming out of regionals.<\/p>\n
But there was plenty of competition waiting from West Monroe, Destrehan, Covington, and Denham Springs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls gave themselves the opportunity, and that\u2019s the cool thing,\u201d he said. \u201cYou do the math, and you tell your girls that this is an opportunity to do something special, but you have to wait a month. We knew we had a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Live Oak was equipped to win a state title, qualifying 10 lifters with another serving as an alternate. It was quite a swing for the program, which had one qualifier three years before and none the following season.<\/p>\n
Littlefield compared the month-long gap between regionals and state in powerlifting to that of the College Football Playoff, where teams, who do not play in their respective conference championships and receive opening-round byes, have a five-week opening until playing their quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
The wait is a week shorter for those teams playing opening-round contests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long wait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Live Oak got production from all of its lifters. Seniors Lauren Reviere was eighth at 105 pounds with a total weight of 545 pounds, and Olivia Fontenot placed third at 123 pounds with a total weight of 730 pounds.<\/p>\n
Fontenot provided the first variable in Live Oak\u2019s state title run, a lifter projected to finish sixth or seventh, but rallied ahead of two lifters from Destrehan for third place. A PR of 295 pounds in the squat, and was sixth going into the deadlift, where her 295-pound effort vaulted her to third overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her that if we\u2019re going to do this thing,\u201d Littlefield said to Fontenot, \u201cthat she was going to be a huge part of it if you can jump these girls in front of you. It was kind of that lift we thought where we had a chance to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newcomers such as Jeansonne and Lafayette finished fourth and eighth, respectively, adding to Live Oak\u2019s point total.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Sophomore Izabella Hill came through at 132 pounds with a fifth-place showing. Her total weight of 785 pounds was a 300-pound improvement over last year\u2019s appearance at the state meet.<\/p>\n
Twin sisters Kayla (675) and Kyla (660), both juniors, were second and fourth, respectively, at 114 pounds. For Kyla, it was an improvement of four spots from 2025, while Kayla didn\u2019t qualify last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t win without all of them,\u201d Littlefield said.<\/p>\n
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The three freshmen standouts of a year ago were even better as sophomores, each producing PRs under the brightest lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all had the best meets they\u2019ve ever had, and they all required it,\u201d Littlefield said.<\/p>\n
Powered by a 250-pound squad, Maher won one of the team\u2019s three state individual champions with her 590-pound total at 97 pounds. Catalano set the state\u2019s record of 370 pounds in the bench and won the 123-pound title with a total of 875 pounds.<\/p>\n
Robertson had never cracked the 1,000-pound barrier before but exceeded that with 1,020 pounds and won the 198-pound division.<\/p>\n
While Maher outdueled another competitor from West Monroe to help create space in the team race, Robertson\u2019s triumphant performance proved critical at 198 pounds.<\/p>\n
A year after her second place with 935 pounds at the same weight, Robertson had two competitors from West Monroe breathing down her neck.<\/p>\n
Robertson had lifts of 425 (squat), 340 (deadlift), and 255 (bench), but Live Oak had to withstand a failed attempt from West Monroe on the deadlift that helped solidify the Lady Eagles\u2019 two-point margin over the Lady Rebels.<\/p>\n
\u201cLayla (Whiting) almost gets to lock the deadlift,\u201d Littlefield said of the West Monroe lifter who wound up second to Robertson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt slips out of her hand, and that was it to win. If she locks that out, Layla beats Jenna, and we get second. She was that close and another one of those things that had to go our way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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