Virginia running back Mike Hollins has returned to the school’s football team after the November shooting that killed three of his teammates.
And while he admits that football’s position on his list of priorities has “shrunked,” he still can’t wait to run onto the field with his fellow Cavaliers for their Tennessee opener.
“I can only imagine the emotions that will be coursing through my body,” he said. “I just can — I literally can’t. I have no words for it, because the spring game hit me like a bag of stones, and I didn’t expect it at all, so I can only imagine it. However, I’m done. I am ready.’
Hollins, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was one of two survivors of a shooting last November that killed teammates Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry and Lavel Davis Jr. came to life.
He was shot in the back, had several surgeries and spent a week in the hospital before beginning a long rehabilitation.
The shootings, which also injured student Marlee Morgan, rocked the team and community and forced the Cavaliers to cancel their last two games.
Hollins cheered on his teammates when he returned for spring training four months later, although he had not yet been cleared for full contact. That happened midway through the 15 sessions and he scored on a 1-yard touchdown run in the spring game.
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, allegedly killed three members of the football team but was already known to police because he had been on their radar since September
Mike Hollins (above) was one of two survivors of the shooting that left three dead
On that day, Hollins said, “I just felt free of my mind,” and all the horror planted there that November night. “I mean, it was a lot easier to just hit a ball.”
He celebrated the touchdown by putting the ball on Perry’s name, painted in the end zone along with Davis Jr.’s. and Chandler, who were killed on a school bus returning from a field trip to Washington, DC
A former Virginia player, Christopher Jones Jr., is charged with the shooting and awaits trial.
During his recovery, which he admits is more complete physically than mentally, Hollins “has been a superhero,” said roommate and fellow escapee Perris Jones.
“Experiencing what he has been through and carrying himself with as much grace and perseverance as he has is inspiring to watch day in and day out. His spirit is truly unbroken and he embodies that every day.”
Jones and his teammates aren’t the only ones benefiting from Hollins’ return.
“He has been a great inspiration. He’s been an inspiration to me, you know, on that young man’s strength to come back and play,” defensive coach Chris Slade said. “And he came back in the spring, and that’s big.”
Hollins knows that no one would have questioned him or anyone on last year’s team if they decided not to play anymore or to move to another school. He also knows how to keep things in perspective as they play to honor their fallen teammates.
Hollins runs down the middle one week before the shooting for a win against North Carolina
Hollins has regained the weight he lost while recovering from a gunshot wound in the hospital
“Being here and being able to play again and touch the pitch and just come together as a team does justice to that legacy in itself. We don’t have to go out and try… to go undefeated or win a championship,” he said.
That desire to honor their teammates has been cited by several players who decided to return, including defensive lineman Chico Bennett and Perris Jones.
“It’s a shame it has to happen this way,” said Bennett, “but now that we’re getting a platform, we’re going to make the best of it. I look forward to being able to do that and honor them through our game and do it the best I can.”
Said Jones, “I have a debt to pay those boys, and I intend to pay it.”
As Hollins gears up for Virginia’s game against Tennessee in Nashville on Sept. 2, he said, he’ll be “carrying something with me.”
“It will always weigh on you,” he said. “There will never be a day when you don’t remember or feel something is missing in your heart when you think about it.”