South Pointe, Beaufort changed Holloman’s life. Fate landed both teams in title game
DeVonte Holloman recognized the names.
It happened during a film session on Sunday, the South Pointe High head coach said — while he was parsing through Beaufort’s football roster as he prepared for Thursday night’s 4A state championship game. He recognized Tyler Haley and Alvin Wilson, Amariee Morris and Scott Rast. Others, too.
“A lot of those dudes, I can remember being freshmen,” he told The Herald before a practice on Monday afternoon. He smiled and shrugged: “Some of them played on varsity when they were freshmen. Some of them were on JV. But the familiarity of knowing them, watching film, it’s a little crazy.”
When South Pointe (11-1) plays Beaufort (12-2) at Benedict College in Columbia on Thursday night, Holloman will be in the middle of a matchup between two schools that he knows well.
On one sideline, there will be South Pointe. That’s the school Holloman will represent. It’s where Holloman has coached since February 2019. His alma mater. The place that nurtured his football-playing rise as a Stallion standout, then as a USC Gamecock star, then as an NFL draft pick in 2013.
On the other sideline, there will be Beaufort. That’s the team Holloman and the Stallions will try to beat. Beaufort is the home of Holloman’s first high school head coaching job. It’s the place where he “fell in love with football again” — where he rediscovered his life’s purpose.
“Honestly, this was my dream for Beaufort then, when I was there,” he said. “And of course, it’s my dream for South Pointe now that I’m here. And for both of them to meet? It’s really cool.”
How we got to Thursday
In order to truly understand what South Pointe and Beaufort mean to the 30-year-old head coach, you have to chart his path to the present day. And that story starts on a devastating day in August 2014.
It was a preseason game in Holloman’s second year on the Dallas Cowboys. The then-23-year-old had worked his entire life to be on that NFL stage. And his rise up until that point was mostly unencumbered: He moved to Rock Hill from Charlotte in 2008, joining forces with Stephon Gilmore at South Pointe to help lead the Stallions to a 15-0 season, a national ranking and a state championship.
The football success continued to flow after he graduated high school in 2009. He went to South Carolina, where he was a key contributor to USC’s resurgence under Steve Spurrier, and then later was picked in the sixth round of the 2013 draft.
He was young, mostly healthy and had plenty to prove. In his first preseason game as a pro, he took an interception 75 yards to the end zone, and he was a force in his seven games played as a rookie.
But then came that day — Aug. 16, 2014. In his second preseason game of his second year, Holloman went through the motions of a routine play. But when he hit an offensive lineman while pursuing the ball, he crumpled to the ground, numb, unable to move.
He had developed spinal stenosis, he’d later learn, which is a neck injury that narrows the spaces within one’s spine. In so many words: The next hit could have paralyzed him. He announced his retirement from football a few days later.
Done with football and robbed of any real closure for it, Holloman was then tasked with figuring out who he was and what to do next. He was a graduate assistant at USC for a year before he and his wife, Angelina, moved to Beaufort, where Angelina grew up and where her family had roots. That’s where and when he got involved with the football program at Beaufort High School.
Having the game taken away wasn’t easy. Holloman told The Herald on Monday that it wasn’t clear at the time of his move to the most southern part of the state that he wanted football in his life anymore.
“When I got to Beaufort, there was a time when I was kind of up in the air about coaching,” Holloman said. “Just got done playing, went to the University of South Carolina, was a G.A., and I was just kind of falling out of love with football.”
But then he started coaching. He started being around players who played with an unqualified joy. His trademark and disarming smile returned, this time with a ball cap on his head instead of a helmet and a whistle around his neck instead of shoulderpads.
After two years as defensive coordinator, Holloman was offered the Beaufort head job in 2018. And he took it.
“Those kids that I had at Beaufort High School, they helped me find my love for the game again,” he said. “So I’m kind of in debt to Beaufort in that sense. I wouldn’t be the coach that I am today without those experiences.”
From Beaufort to South Pointe
While head coach at Beaufort, Holloman knew the future could be bright there. He knew he had a talented freshman class — the same ones who’ll be seniors on championship Thursday — and he was surrounded by a good staff. (Beaufort’s current head coach, Bryce Lybrand, was brought on by Holloman in 2018.)
But another flashpoint in Holloman’s life in 2018 again changed everything.
One of the perks of being at Beaufort for Holloman was being near his younger sister, Breelyn, who was a student at USC Beaufort at the time. She was his No. 1 fan, went to his football games and had newspaper clippings commemorating her big brother’s state championship win displayed in her room.
On Oct. 4, 2018, though, Breelyn died by suicide. It was her 18th birthday.
The loss was incalculable for Holloman and his family. It still is.
Late in 2018, Holloman received word that the South Pointe job was available. A desire to be close to his parents after his sister’s passing, among other reasons, pushed him to apply for the job.
And ever since he got the offer and subsequently took the job, Breelyn has been with Holloman in his mind and heart. He’s driven Breelyn’s old two-door Kia for three years now. Her phone charger is still plugged in, her glasses still in the armrest console. Although it’s difficult, he talks about her when appropriate — particularly when his players and/or his coaches are working through losses of their own, or when he’s advocating for mental health awareness and care in sports.
Her presence, in other words, isn’t going away. And that won’t change on Thursday, Holloman said.
“She was a fan of me no matter where I was,” he said on Monday. “But I know for a fact that she loved South Pointe. And that’s part of the reason once I got the call back (to be the coach here), that it was a no-brainer for me.”
He added: “We all got people that we’ve dedicated this season and games to. I know she loves South Pointe. In her room, still, she has all the clippings from the state championships she went to. So it’s going to be fun Thursday to get out there. And I know she’ll be there, too.”
Holloman goes for his 1st state championship
In three years at South Pointe, Holloman has done his fair share of winning.
The Stallions under his tutelage have notched 28 wins and four losses. They haven’t yet lost a region game and have won three Region 3-4A championships, sustaining a region championship winning streak that extends back eight years.
This season in particular has been special: In August, South Pointe beat city foe Northwestern, one of the best teams in South Carolina’s Class 5A. In September, it beat South Florence in come-from-behind, triple-overtime fashion. It used its only loss to Spring Valley (another 5A team) to prove its resilience through October and has since slithered through the playoffs unscathed in November.
And on Thursday, South Pointe is making its eighth overall state championship appearance and its first since 2017 — and it’s doing so with a coach who, 10 years ago, five years ago, even three years ago, probably didn’t think he’d be back in Rock Hill just yet.
“You can’t make this up,” Holloman said, referencing Thursday’s state championship matchup, a showdown between the two schools that mean so much to him, and also everything else, all at once.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 11:12 AM with the headline "South Pointe, Beaufort changed Holloman’s life. Fate landed both teams in title game."
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