Just before fall camp opened, Mike Hollins was late to his media availability because he had to take his dog to the vet. He assured those in attendance when he arrived that she was okay, which was certainly a relief for the UVa running back.
An unexpected early-morning trip to the vet is something no pet owner wants to do, just another one of those routine life events that can be an annoyance or an inconvenience for all of us.
But given what Hollins went through last November, he’s learned not to take anything for granted including things like that.
On the night of Nov. 13, 2022, the UVa football program, the University community, and beyond, lost three young men in Lavel Davis, Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry as they were robbed of the opportunity to keep on living their dreams. In their deaths, the world lost three bright lights that seemed destined for great things, three guys who had already made an edible mark on those around them.
Hollins was wounded, as so many now know, and was truly fortunate to survive. He went through a series of surgeries before eventually beginning the healing process. He was discharged eight days after the shooting, but the healing for him and the program and larger community was just beginning.
The UVa players ultimately decided to forgo their regular-season finale against Virginia Tech in order to attend the funerals of their fallen teammates. Everyone in the UVa community would have supported the players no matter what they decided to do, but being there for the families of Davis, Chandler, and Perry was the right thing to do. The players also showed tremendous maturity and poise in honoring their teammates at the memorial service held on Grounds.
The days and weeks that followed that awful night were tough for everyone associated with the program. In any such tragedy, people go through the stages of grief, something that doesn’t happen overnight. Tony Elliott talks often about not moving on from the tragedy but rather trying to move forward. That’s what the program has tried to do in the months since, beginning with winter workouts, then spring practice, through the dog days of summer, and now into the fall and a new season.
Hollins ultimately made the decision to return to the field, and miraculously given all he had been through was able to rejoin his teammates for spring ball. “I just felt like enough was already taken from me,” he said. “So I just wasn’t going to let football be taken from me as well. Simple.”
While everyone holds Davis, Chandler, and Perry in their memory, it’s also worth lifting up Hollins, who has carried himself so well in the face of such a horrible event in his life. When he met with the media in late July, he talked about his mental state, how he’s working to move forward in his own life, and what he hopes to accomplish this year with his teammates, and in his academic pursuits.
He did so with incredible poise, maturity and introspection.
“What we’ve seen in Mike is a guy amidst all the things that have been added to his life, he’s just gotten up every single day,” Elliott said of Hollins before fall camp. “And even through the tears and through the struggles, he’s shown up. He’s been there for his teammates, and he hasn’t made anything about him.”
Hollins’ return to the field is remarkable in its own right, but he’s also working to make himself a well-rounded person. The Baton Rouge native is working on his Master’s degree in higher education and talked during his time at the podium about how being a dog parent changed his perspective, too: He named his dog after D’Sean.
Hollins is clearly leaning on his faith to get through these difficult times, and while it’s cruel and unfair for anyone to have to go through what he’s been through, he will certainly come out the other side of tragedy a strong man.
“A complete change of perspective for this season,” he said. “Just wondering how I can build deeper connections with my teammates and my professors and the people who are here to support me. How can I show gratitude and appreciation? All of that has been keeping me motivated every day.
“It’s so much bigger than me now,” Hollins added. “Football as a whole has kind of shrunk; football is a vehicle to so many other avenues in my eyes now. It’s not the end-all-be-all, and it can’t be. So now I’m just looking at football as yes, it is my dream, but how many other ways can I use it to better myself off the field?”
The next stage in the healing process is getting back on the field for a game that counts, against an actual opponent. That will happen on Saturday in Nashville when the Cavaliers take on No. 12 Tennessee. Regardless of the outcome against the heavily-favored Vols, everyone back home in Virginia, and many around the country and the world, will be rooting for the Hoos. It will be an emotional day for all involved, to be sure.
“We’re going to do everything we possibly can, by the families, by the program, by the University, and have the physical tributes and the memorials and all of that,” Elliott said of the upcoming season. “But I want this football team to do it, which I believe is the most important way, is by how we play on the field. Because those guys will never get to step on the grass again.”
For Hollins, Saturday is another big step in his physical and emotional recovery. He scored in April’s Spring Game, which brought a huge cheer from the crowd, and did so with his little brother standing on the field just a few yards away. He admitted that he wondered if a moment like that would ever come again, and the same can be said for Saturday’s season opener in front of more than 70,000 fans and a national TV audience.
“I can only imagine the emotion that will be flowing through my body,” Hollins said,. “I have no words, because the Spring Game hit me like a sack of rocks. And I didn’t expect it at all. I can only imagine.
“I’m ready, though,” he added. “I know I need to go through it, I can’t go around it. I have to face it head on. And I’m excited for the opportunity to add a little gas to their flame at the start of the season, and then come back for the home game in their honor. “
Regardless of how many games this program wins, they will honor the lives of Devin, D’Sean and Lavel by playing with great passion and enthusiasm. From all of the tributes, it seems like that’s how all three of them lived their own lives.
“I don’t see a way this season can be a failure, no matter the record, no matter the ending, no matter anything,” Hollins explained. “As long as we go out there and play, we’re doing their legacy justice. Because we’re here; we don’t have to be. No one would say you’re wrong for saying ‘I want to sit the season out because I just haven’t recovered.’ So just showing up is enough, and I believe that it’s enough for them, just to see us showing up.”
Hollins is right. Everyone roots for wins, but even more than that, this year, everyone should root for the team to find some peace and joy on the field. That goes for those Wahoos that are elsewhere too, like Marques Hagans, who coached and mentored two of the victims and now carries the weight of the tragedy in a new job. And most of all, peace for the families of the lost.
It’s easy to get frustrated when something doesn’t go the team’s way on the field. But this year, UVa fans should also remember what this program has been through and is still working through every day.
There can be such a lack of humanity in how sports are discussed and covered, but November’s tragedy is a painful reminder of the fragility of life and that these are young men who are so much more than what they do between the lines.
The Virginia Cavaliers are going to show up to play on Saturday. They’ll do so with heavy hearts and likely some determination to play for the friends who aren’t able to put on their helmets with them in person, but certainly will be there in spirit.
They’ll play for their friends. Their teammates. For their families. For their communities. For each other.
And that’s more than enough.
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