Football Recruiting - East Region: Thomas Holley
The evaluation period might have ended a few days ago, but that doesn't mean ESPN 150 DT Thomas Holley (Brooklyn, N.Y./Lincoln) has been able to get a break from recruiting.
He missed a call Wednesday night from a reporter but called back a few minutes later. Turns out he was on the other line -- picking up an offer from N.C. State, his 25th.
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Thomas Holley’s recruitment has been a lot like his most recent visit.
The ESPN 150 defensive tackle out of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Abraham Lincoln was at Penn State for the annual spring game, which was hampered by every weather condition imaginable.
“It did a little bit of everything -- rain, snow, everything -- it was crazy,” Holley said.
The first few months of his recruitment have been the same. Holley, No. 93 in the ESPN 150, has seen it all in a short time. He went from basketball prospect to first-year football player to playing just a handful of games to landing his first offer. Now he is an Under Armour All-American with more than 20 offers.
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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- The 2013 Nike Football Training Camp tour continued Sunday in New Jersey as several top players from the Mid-Atlantic showcased their skills at the New York Jets' facility.
Here is what RecruitingNation learned:
More than hoops in the city
New York City is not known for producing a large quantity of football talent, but the quality is up there with the rest of the country. Athlete Curtis Samuel (Brooklyn, N.Y./Erasmus Hall) and ESPN 150 defensive tackle Thomas Holley (Brooklyn, N.Y./Abraham Lincoln) were positional MVPs at the camp and among those most impressive players Sunday. Samuel looked smooth in one-on-one drills, and Holley made quick work of the offensive linemen in pass-blocking drills.
Samuel’s future on offense?
Here is what RecruitingNation learned:
More than hoops in the city
New York City is not known for producing a large quantity of football talent, but the quality is up there with the rest of the country. Athlete Curtis Samuel (Brooklyn, N.Y./Erasmus Hall) and ESPN 150 defensive tackle Thomas Holley (Brooklyn, N.Y./Abraham Lincoln) were positional MVPs at the camp and among those most impressive players Sunday. Samuel looked smooth in one-on-one drills, and Holley made quick work of the offensive linemen in pass-blocking drills.
Samuel’s future on offense?
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Thomas Holley (Brooklyn, N.Y./Abraham Lincoln) grew tired of the questions after every basketball game.
Inevitably, someone would stroll up to him on the hardwood and ask if he played football. Underclassmen weren't supposed to be so big, they'd say. And at about 250 pounds, they sure weren't supposed to move that fast.
"I kept saying no, that I didn't play football, and they'd just look at me funny," Holley said with a laugh. "They're like, 'Stop playing with me.' That's always how it's been for me, everywhere I go. So when I started thinking about it, people were all like, 'You should play football.' "
Football was always a lingering curiosity for the ESPN Watch List prospect, who took up the sport less than a year ago. The defensive tackle played basketball since third grade, and he always wondered about the sport. But his mother wasn't a fan of him playing such a rough-and-tumble game.
Holley didn't press the issue because he was over the league's weight limit in middle school anyway. He couldn't play football if he was over 185 pounds -- and he towered over most of his classmates at 6-foot, 230. But when fan after fan kept approaching him after those high school games, Holley couldn't resist.
He had to try it out. He wasn't even sure if he'd like it -- but what did he have to lose? He recruited his uncle to help persuade his mother into allowing him to play toward the end of his sophomore year. Scholarship offers weren't on his mind at that point, so he just focused on maintaining his weight by shedding fat and adding muscle.
Inevitably, someone would stroll up to him on the hardwood and ask if he played football. Underclassmen weren't supposed to be so big, they'd say. And at about 250 pounds, they sure weren't supposed to move that fast.
"I kept saying no, that I didn't play football, and they'd just look at me funny," Holley said with a laugh. "They're like, 'Stop playing with me.' That's always how it's been for me, everywhere I go. So when I started thinking about it, people were all like, 'You should play football.' "
Football was always a lingering curiosity for the ESPN Watch List prospect, who took up the sport less than a year ago. The defensive tackle played basketball since third grade, and he always wondered about the sport. But his mother wasn't a fan of him playing such a rough-and-tumble game.
Holley didn't press the issue because he was over the league's weight limit in middle school anyway. He couldn't play football if he was over 185 pounds -- and he towered over most of his classmates at 6-foot, 230. But when fan after fan kept approaching him after those high school games, Holley couldn't resist.
He had to try it out. He wasn't even sure if he'd like it -- but what did he have to lose? He recruited his uncle to help persuade his mother into allowing him to play toward the end of his sophomore year. Scholarship offers weren't on his mind at that point, so he just focused on maintaining his weight by shedding fat and adding muscle.
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Ohio State just became the newest suitor for one of nation's fastest-rising defensive linemen, offering him a scholarship.
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NYC football still suffering Sandy's wrath
February, 27, 2013
Feb 27
10:27
AM ET
By
Jared Shanker | ESPN.com
A helicopter hovered over Beach Channel High in Rockaway Park, N.Y. Inside the aircraft was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who, along with the pilot, was surveying an entrance point to the Rockaway Peninsula. Few areas among the 24 states Hurricane Sandy affected were hit as hard as this one.
As the helicopter got within a few dozen feet of Beach Channel’s artificial turf football field, the pilot suddenly ascended again. The turf, already torn at the seams from years of wear, lifted from the foundation and began wildly whipping around in the air, nearly catching in the helicopter’s rotor.
“If you look at our football field, from the 40 to 40 is nonexistent,” Beach Channel coach Victor Nazario said. “It’s only the black rocks and stones underneath the field.”
An area lightly recruited to begin with, New York City’s few prospects face even more challenges and hurdles in landing the elusive Division I scholarship.
Beach Channel DT Folorunso Fatukasi has yet to go back to his house since the Oct. 29 superstorm forced his family to evacuate. But he’s trying to make the best of the situation.
For several months, Fatukasi was working out at a gym close to the motel where his family was staying. His family is now living with a friend, but his perseverance helped him sign with Connecticut earlier this month and he recently received his workout schedule from the UConn staff.
Now that Beach Channel is open again, Fatukasi is working out on the field as much as the conditions allow.
“We can do some workouts, small sprints,” Fatukasi said, “but when me and my teammates want to do full sprints, it’s not working out. … But it can be done. We got half of a field to work with. If we need to do 100-yard sprints, I guess we’ll go right there and turn right back around.”
While Fatukasi is signed and ready to leave for UConn in the summer, underclassmen are just beginning their pursuit of a scholarship. The spring evaluation period, during which college coaches can visit high schools and watch potential recruits train, begins April 15 and lasts through the end of May.
The problem is several high schools don’t have a field or facilities.
Nazario faced a similar situation 13 years ago as the city updated several of New York’s fields. Nazario, who spent six years in the Army Reserves, held workouts at an old military fort no longer in operation. He hopes to use that again if the field is not ready in time, but he was told the base could be used to help deal with Sandy relief in another capacity. Layers of sand from the nearby beach buried another Rockaway youth football field, leaving one fewer option.
“I’m brainstorming as we speak,” Nazario said.
Abraham Lincoln (Brooklyn, N.Y.) coach Shawn O’Connor talked with assistant coaches last week about what the school will do for the spring evaluation period.
Lincoln junior defensive tackle Thomas Holley has added several high-level BCS offers in recent weeks, but he has only eight career games under his belt. O’Connor has a few other underclassmen who also could use the help of a strong spring performance in front of coaches to earn a scholarship.
“We got not only Thomas but some other good guys that can get some [attention] because [colleges] are coming to look at Thomas,” O’Connor said. “Right now we’d go in tennis courts or the gym or go to a park a couple blocks away if they don’t get the field up and running.”
Sandy could hurt the development of New York City’s prospects when it comes to the 2013 season as well. Nazario and O’Connor both lost their football field houses to flooding. The recently furnished weight room at Lincoln was destroyed, as well as game tape and some equipment. Beach Channel’s field house had three TV sets and DVD players to watch film. All are now unusable.
“I had to sit with my AD to give a list of everything lost -- which was pretty much everything -- and what needs to be replaced,” Nazario said, “but the Department of Education has priorities and understandably so.”
With estimates pushing Sandy’s damage toll past $70 billion, O’Connor is asking where the money to help rebuild football facilities and buy equipment will come from.
“Who’s going to pay for it?” he said.
Nazario just hopes he can field a team in 2013. The numbers are dropping, and some parents are hesitant to send their children back to the city schools hit hardest.
He tries not to dwell on it too much, though. He said that isn’t in his nature.
“I’m not going to pout,” he said. “I’m going to seek to solve it.”
As the helicopter got within a few dozen feet of Beach Channel’s artificial turf football field, the pilot suddenly ascended again. The turf, already torn at the seams from years of wear, lifted from the foundation and began wildly whipping around in the air, nearly catching in the helicopter’s rotor.
“If you look at our football field, from the 40 to 40 is nonexistent,” Beach Channel coach Victor Nazario said. “It’s only the black rocks and stones underneath the field.”
Courtesy of Victor NazarioNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg used Beach Channel High's football field as a helicopter landing area while surveying Hurricane Sandy's damage to Rockaway Peninsula.
Beach Channel DT Folorunso Fatukasi has yet to go back to his house since the Oct. 29 superstorm forced his family to evacuate. But he’s trying to make the best of the situation.
For several months, Fatukasi was working out at a gym close to the motel where his family was staying. His family is now living with a friend, but his perseverance helped him sign with Connecticut earlier this month and he recently received his workout schedule from the UConn staff.
Now that Beach Channel is open again, Fatukasi is working out on the field as much as the conditions allow.
“We can do some workouts, small sprints,” Fatukasi said, “but when me and my teammates want to do full sprints, it’s not working out. … But it can be done. We got half of a field to work with. If we need to do 100-yard sprints, I guess we’ll go right there and turn right back around.”
While Fatukasi is signed and ready to leave for UConn in the summer, underclassmen are just beginning their pursuit of a scholarship. The spring evaluation period, during which college coaches can visit high schools and watch potential recruits train, begins April 15 and lasts through the end of May.
The problem is several high schools don’t have a field or facilities.
Nazario faced a similar situation 13 years ago as the city updated several of New York’s fields. Nazario, who spent six years in the Army Reserves, held workouts at an old military fort no longer in operation. He hopes to use that again if the field is not ready in time, but he was told the base could be used to help deal with Sandy relief in another capacity. Layers of sand from the nearby beach buried another Rockaway youth football field, leaving one fewer option.
“I’m brainstorming as we speak,” Nazario said.
Abraham Lincoln (Brooklyn, N.Y.) coach Shawn O’Connor talked with assistant coaches last week about what the school will do for the spring evaluation period.
Lincoln junior defensive tackle Thomas Holley has added several high-level BCS offers in recent weeks, but he has only eight career games under his belt. O’Connor has a few other underclassmen who also could use the help of a strong spring performance in front of coaches to earn a scholarship.
“We got not only Thomas but some other good guys that can get some [attention] because [colleges] are coming to look at Thomas,” O’Connor said. “Right now we’d go in tennis courts or the gym or go to a park a couple blocks away if they don’t get the field up and running.”
Sandy could hurt the development of New York City’s prospects when it comes to the 2013 season as well. Nazario and O’Connor both lost their football field houses to flooding. The recently furnished weight room at Lincoln was destroyed, as well as game tape and some equipment. Beach Channel’s field house had three TV sets and DVD players to watch film. All are now unusable.
“I had to sit with my AD to give a list of everything lost -- which was pretty much everything -- and what needs to be replaced,” Nazario said, “but the Department of Education has priorities and understandably so.”
With estimates pushing Sandy’s damage toll past $70 billion, O’Connor is asking where the money to help rebuild football facilities and buy equipment will come from.
“Who’s going to pay for it?” he said.
Nazario just hopes he can field a team in 2013. The numbers are dropping, and some parents are hesitant to send their children back to the city schools hit hardest.
He tries not to dwell on it too much, though. He said that isn’t in his nature.
“I’m not going to pout,” he said. “I’m going to seek to solve it.”
DT Holley excited about PSU visit, offer 
February, 25, 2013
Feb 25
11:01
AM ET
By
Josh Moyer | ESPN.com
Defensive tackle Thomas Holley fell asleep 1 a.m. Saturday, woke up at 3 a.m. and then hopped in his car for a four-hour drive to Penn State. He skipped the coffee; his adrenaline was already pumping.
And, after a long day where he picked up a PSU offer, the junior out of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Abraham Lincoln said he couldn't have been happier with his sleepless day.
And, after a long day where he picked up a PSU offer, the junior out of Brooklyn (N.Y.) Abraham Lincoln said he couldn't have been happier with his sleepless day.
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RECRUITING NATION EAST COVERAGE
The East Region consists of the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. Programs from all over the country consider the East Region fertile recruiting territory and it's not uncommon for kids to sign with teams from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten and SEC.
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• West Region blog
EAST RECRUITING CONTRIBUTORS
Dave HookerESPN Archive |
Jared ShankerESPN Archive |