Late change of heart lands HHCA standout a walk-on spot at Illinois

It’s fair to say James Bartholomew got a late start in the football recruiting process. OK, he got a really late start.

At a time when the ink was drying on national letters-of-intent from Hilton Head Island’s Bryce Singleton (Florida International) and Bluffton’s Cam Bent (Charlotte), the Hilton Head Christian senior was just starting to send emails to various NCAA Division I programs around the country.

You can imagine the response. “Either they didn’t want me, or their roster was filled,” Bartholomew said.

Except one.

Illinois, in Year 2 of a big rebuilding effort under former Super Bowl coach Lovie Smith, was still on the lookout for an undercover gem. They started a conversation, and Bartholomew now is headed to the Big Ten as a preferred walk-on receiver.

“They had an opening,” Bartholomew said, “and it just happened to be the right fit.”

Hey, it only takes one.

Bartholomew was a man of many uses for the Eagles, hardly coming off the field as he switched between receiver, defensive back and kick returner. He even played quarterback in HHCA’s finale against rival Hilton Head Prep.

He made The Island Packet/Beaufort Gazette All-Area second team as a defensive back, tying for fourth on the squad with 46 tackles. Offensively, Bartholomew finished second behind 1,000-yard rusher Zach Doe with 645 all-purpose yards.

Bartholomew scored touchdowns four ways — one each via rushing, receiving, a punt return and a kickoff return. That may have prompted Illini coaches to express interest, even though they had no more scholarships to give.

“They said, ‘You have a burst of speed we see on tape. Would you be willing to walk on?’ ” Bartholomew said. “I said absolutely. We started talking back and forth, I went up on a visit and we hit it off really well.”

The Illini went 3-9 in Smith’s first season, following two tumultuous years in which former coach Tim Beckman was fired a week before the 2015 opener amid reports of coaching abuses. Smith, who took the Bears to the 2007 Super Bowl and later coached the Buccaneers, was brought in to clean things up at a school that once produced Red Grange and Dick Butkus.

No college staff has more NFL experience, with 56 years of NFL coaching between them. That includes receivers coach Andrew Hayes-Stoker, who spent five years with Smith in both Chicago and Tampa Bay.

“The coaching staff there is just second to none,” Bartholomew said. “Lately they haven’t been the Illinois team they should be. They’re going through a really big rebuilding process right now. It would be fun to get that program back on track.”

Not bad for a late starter. Until February, Bartholomew was headed to Mississippi — perhaps just as a student, maybe take a walk-on shot with the Rebels.

It wasn’t until baseball season rolled around that he decided he wasn’t ready to end his athletic career.

“It just kind of dawned on me, going into baseball, that this would be my last sports season in anything,” he said. “I was just thinking about next year and knew I wouldn’t be able to sit in the stands, cheering someone else on, when I felt like I could be out there.”

It was a longshot idea, but no risk except for a few dozen rejection emails. Bartholomew said he reached out across the country, from SEC and ACC schools all the way to a few Pac-12 programs. Mississippi got a query, of course, as did South Carolina, where Bartholomew’s sister attended and the family has spent many fall Saturdays.

“We’ve had a tailgate spot for the last seven years,” he said. “We’d go to every home game we could make it to.”

Now those fall Saturdays are being planned for a campus a little less than 900 miles away from Hilton Head Island. Bartholomew said he’s never attended a college football game outside the SEC.

“I’m excited,” he said. “The opportunity is once-in-a-lifetime.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Late change of heart lands HHCA standout a walk-on spot at Illinois."