When she wasn’t able to compete between the sidelines, Lauren Cella had to win the game between her ears.
The Holy Spirit High School senior is as active as they come, earning a spot in the starting lineup for three varsity sports as well as AAU summer basketball. When a knee injury forced her to take significant time off, Cella struggled with the separation from sports.
“Not even physically, but it was the most mentally tough challenge,” the Absecon resident said. “Sitting there is hard when I’ve never really been on that side of it. There was a lot of observing and seeing things from a different perspective. It was definitely the most challenging thing I have been through in my life.”
Cella started noticing knee pain last basketball season. She was diagnosed with a sprain to the Medial Patellofemoral Ligament, which connects the kneecap to the thigh bone. She played through a lot of discomfort to finish basketball season, but action needed to be taken.
“My knee started giving out on me,” Cella said. “I got it checked out, and I had a sprain in my MPFL ligament. I was really nervous, and I had to make a big decision whether I wanted it fixed with surgery or try to wait it out. With [2025-26] basketball season in mind, I really didn’t have time to waste. I made the decision to get surgery.”
It was a six-month recovery, which put an end to lacrosse season and forced Cella to miss her recruiting season of AAU basketball. Her senior year of field hockey was also nixed. But that didn’t stop Cella from staying involved around school. She’s part of the National Honor Society as well as her school’s Latin Honor Society, Yearbook Club and Spartan Ambassadors. She put her math skills to the test by becoming the field hockey team’s statistician in the fall.
“I wanted to feel as if I was still on the team, even though I couldn’t play,” Cella said. “Just being there was a big thing for me. Missing my last season with field hockey wasn’t fun, but I had to make sacrifices if I wanted to be healthy for this [basketball] season, which was my top priority.”
A week before basketball practices started, Cella was finally cleared for contact.
“It was rough, but I got right back into it,” she said. “A little too quickly, because I got another injury with my foot. It’s been a long ride, and I’m just so happy to be back.”
Once she returned, Cella needed constant reminders from her teammates and coaches to not rush her recovery.
“It was hard in the preseason because we had to try to slow her down,” Spartans coach Scott Meile said. “You could tell she wasn’t herself. We would tell her to take it easy. It’s just the way she is. It’s her personality trait.”
Cella doesn’t like spending much time in first or second gear. It’s usually full throttle.
“I love being active,” Cella said. “I love going for walks and runs and hanging out with my friends. I love staying busy. I like being upbeat and doing something all the time.”
Usually she’s scoring points. In field hockey, she scored 19 goals and 22 assists over three seasons. In lacrosse, she netted 55 goals and 24 assists in just two seasons. In basketball, she’s accumulated more than 800 career points. She’s hoping to become the 14th female in school history to reach 1,000 points on the hardwood.
Through Jan. 18, Cella was at 838 career points. She is averaging north of 11 points per game this season, so it could come down to the wire.
“It’s definitely a big goal,” she said. “The main goal is to win a championship, but 1,000 points is a big thing for me. Basketball has been my entire life, and since I was a little kid, it’s definitely something I wanted to achieve. Not even just to say I got it, but just to know I put in all that work.”
Meile knows how hard Cella has worked to get back on the court. Seeing her reach that milestone would be grand.
“Character is the thing that shows when people aren’t looking,” Meile said. “What kind of person you are when people don’t have eyes on you? Lauren’s character is one of the best that you can get. She is someone that I feel is the epitome of a student athlete at Holy Spirit. She does well in school, she’s a three-sport athlete and she just does things that make us a better team.”
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