ND Hits HR With Holloman
The bar has been set and it’s been set higher. Higher than Oneida Holloman thought was possible.
Holloman joined her son, 2017 Georgia wide receiver Jeremiah Holloman on his official visit to Notre Dame this weekend, and spoke with Irish Sports Daily about it afterward.
“It was phenomenal,” Mrs. Holloman said. “We really, really, really enjoyed it. We enjoyed it a whole lot. Way more than I thought.
“It’s definitely a place you have to physically experience. You cannot go by anybody else’s word. It’s definitely a place you have to literally physically visit.”
The experience went well beyond football.
“First of all, speaking with the staff members and the coaches, but more importantly, Chris (Stevens) at the business college,” she said. “We spoke to him. He was phenomenal. He’s a professor over there and is a partner with a couple other guys who built the Keurig system.
“He’s a phenomenal guy. You can tell he genuinely cares about his students. There were students who were coming in just to give him a hug, which speaks volume.”
The family also had the opportunity to meet with Notre Dame Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick.
“You wouldn’t even know that he’s the athletic director because he’s so down to earth,” she said. “He’s somebody J.J. could go in and have a conversation with. You never meet the athletic director in a lot of places, especially not the parents anyway. For us to be able to experience that was great.”
Not surprisingly, the Associate Director of Academic Services For Student-Athletes also made a strong impression.
“We talked with Adam Sargent,” Mrs. Holloman said. “Oh my goodness, that man, he’s awesome. He is really awesome.”
The overall feel of Notre Dame definitely hit home with the Hollomans.
“The perspective that you get when you visit Notre Dame is definitely one of character-building, one of getting the students to be what God created them to be, so helping them find their purpose in life,” Mrs. Holloman said. “I don’t care if a student does not select that school, you definitely have to experience it because it allows you to understand what to expect out of life, what to expect from other institutions.
“Not to mention the peace that’s on that campus, oh my goodness. There’s a peace about that place that’s indescribable.”
The outcome of the game was disappointing from a Notre Dame perspective, but Mrs. Holloman came away with a different view.
“Despite that, they kept fighting and they came back,” she said. “It’s not always whether or not you win, a lot of times, it’s what you do even in a loss. The fact that you don’t lay down, the fact that you don’t have a spirit of defeat. There are going to be times in life where you may not get the W, however, the fact that they kept fighting says a lot about them.
“Like any other team, there were a few mistakes, however, again, with life is going to come with mistakes. You get up, you dust yourself off and keep going. They threw the ball, I love that. They did exactly what I expected them to do.”
The Irish will have plenty of competition to land Holloman. In-state Georgia is under strong consideration as is Tennessee, Auburn, Miami, Oregon and Oklahoma State. But the Irish did about as well as they could have hoped to.
“I like it way more than I imagined,” Mrs. Holloman said. “It sets the bar very high for everyone else. This is our very first official. It gives us a standard, a very high standard, of what to expect from other institutions.
“Notre Dame is Notre Dame. It’s going to be different from every other place. However, there are certain things that should be universal. Knowing what we expect and being able to accept no less than that is exactly what our vision is from this day forward. I know what to listen for because Notre Dame set that standard.”