BEST EVER!

Holloway in rare company as player, coach of champions

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MICHAEL WOODS Boonville pitcher Trey Holloway is congratulated by teammates Will Swint (left) and Brad West (right) after beating the Central Arkansas Christian Mustangs 2-1 in the 2001 Class AAA state championship game in Fayetteville.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MICHAEL WOODS Boonville pitcher Trey Holloway is congratulated by teammates Will Swint (left) and Brad West (right) after beating the Central Arkansas Christian Mustangs 2-1 in the 2001 Class AAA state championship game in Fayetteville.

FORT SMITH -- Dale Mann knew Trey Holloway was going to be a special player as a sophomore at Booneville.

Before the 1999 baseball season started, Mann had received a call from then-Van Buren coach Kirk Bock asking if the Bearcats wanted to play a game with the Pointers at the Field of Dreams complex.

BEST EVER!

Who was the best athlete ever at your school? The sports staff of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is highlighting 14 former prep standouts.

TREY HOLLOWAY

SCHOOL Booneville

YEAR GRADUATED 2001

SPORTS Baseball, basketball, football, track and field

WHY HIM? Holloway was a four-sport athlete at Booneville in football, basketball, baseball and track. … He was a 3-time all-state player with a career pitching record of 35-3 and batted nearly .500 for his career. … In the spring of 2001, Holloway batted .531 while compiling a 12-1 season record with a 0.76 ERA with 134 strikeouts. … He went 3-0 with a save in 23 innings pitched in the 2001 Class AAA state tournament, allowing just 8 hits and 3 runs with 36 strikeouts. Holloway was the MVP of the Class AAA state baseball finals, pitching a complete game in a 2-1 win over Central Arkansas Christian at Baum Stadium. … In football, he was a starting defensive back on the 2000 Class AAA state championship Bearcat football team. He also played wide receiver and was a reserve quarterback. … He started as a free safety in Booneville’s 29-21 win over Nashville in the 2000 Class AAA state finals at War Memorial Stadium. In that game, he had 5 solo tackles and caught a pass for 24 yards as Booneville finished the season 14-1. … He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 41st round of the 2001 Major League Baseball amateur draft. Instead, he attended Westark College (now Arkansas-Fort Smith), earning third-team All-American honors. He played baseball at the University of Arkansas from 2004-2006, playing for the Hogs in the 2004 College World Series. … He was 2-2 with a 3.77 ERA in 2004 in 23 appearances and 45 1/3 innings pitched. … His career record at Arkansas was 9-2 with a 3.74 ERA. … Holloway earned his degree in kinesiology with a K-12 education endorsement. He was an assistant baseball coach at Alma and Fort Smith Southside, then became the head baseball coach at Greenwood where he compiled a 104-40 record in five seasons. … His 2018 Bulldog squad finished 32-3, winning the Class 6A state championship, led by current Razorback pitcher Conner Noland. … Holloway is one of six coaches in Arkansas to win a high school state baseball title as a coach and a player. … He stepped away from coaching this spring and is now working for Paschal Air, Plumbing and Electric in Springdale.

photo

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/BENJAMIN KRAIN

May 9, 2000: Booneville's Trey Holloway pitches to a Lonoke batter before a rain delay in the second inning canceled their tournament game.

photo

Graham Thomas/Siloam Sunday

April 24, 2018: Greenwood's Connor Noland, who went on to play baseball and football at the University of Arkansas, visits with Greenwood head coach Trey Holloway during a game at Siloam Springs.

"We show up, and there is a lot of people there for a high school game, including some dignitaries," Mann said. "When I asked Kirk what was going on, he told me he forgot to mention that this game was the dedication naming high school field after the (Iverson) Riggs family.

"I told him that was cold picking on a little country bumpkin school for a game like this. I told him we would try to give him a good game and that we were throwing a sophomore left-hander. It was Trey -- and we beat them. After the game I told Bock that I forgot to mention that (Holloway) was no ordinary sophomore."

Turns out Mann was a little colder.

At Booneville, Holloway was a throwback to a different era. When people in Arkansas think of four-sport athletes in Arkansas, one of the legendary names fans and reporters easily recall is Pine Bluff's Basil Shabazz.

The idea of high school players playing sports in all three seasons (fall, winter, spring) is a rarity these days. It is a good bet that schools are more likely to have a student with a perfect 36 on the ACT than one that plays four sports.

Holloway was one of many great athletes that came through Booneville in the late 1990s and early 2000s, culminating in the Bearcats winning state championships in football and baseball in his senior year (2000-01).

"Trey is a throwback in that he was play-everything and do-everything," Mann said. "He was good at everything he did. He was the whole package: character, intelligence, tenacity, dedication and work ethic were all second to none."

There's a lot of sacrifice a four-sport athlete has to go through, especially one who wants to be a success in all four sports.

"It takes a lot of time, dedication and commitment," Holloway said. "I think a lot of kids don't want to play as many sports. But playing different sports makes you a better athlete. Football helped me with toughness, basketball helped me with quickness, baseball with hand-eye coordination, and track with conditioning and mental toughness."

Holloway admitted Booneville had an edge a lot of schools did not have at the time.

"We had two athletic periods -- I had first hour and seventh hour athletics," Holloway said. "Since I had no offseason, first period was weights and/or conditioning. We were doing things other schools were not doing in the offseason and the summertime. We were ahead of the game."

Mann said the residents of Booneville deserve credit for the success of its sports program.

"We had a community that supported everything we did," Mann said. "People think that Booneville is a football town only, but the community has supported all sports. Booneville is a hard-working, blue-collar town that supports their kids."

In the winter Holloway played basketball, then in the spring was a distance runner on his father's track team while primarily playing baseball.

"My dad (Geral) had it where I was running long-distance -- the mile and two-mile," Holloway said. "Track really helped with the mental toughness in that when you are tired, you still have to push through it and finish the race."

Mann agreed the distance running was a huge factor in keeping his budding lefty in prime condition.

"Trey ran track while he was playing baseball," Mann said. "He would pitch one day, then the next day and would go to track practice and do his running before coming over to baseball practice."

Looking back, Holloway believed playing basketball helped him as much as track did to prepare him for baseball.

"Many basketball players are great athletes," Holloway said. "Look at an Antonio Gates who played basketball in college then became a great tight end in the NFL. Imagine Lebron James being a receiver in the NFL with his size, quickness and jumping ability."

Holloway was a three-time Class AAA All-State baseball player with a 35-3 pitching record with a batting average close to .500.

In 2001, he was 12-1 with a 0.76 ERA with 134 strikeouts (the team finished with a 23-1 record) while batting .531. Holloway was the MVP of the Class AAA state baseball finals, thanks to three wins and a save in 23 innings pitched. He finished the tournament with a complete-game, 2-1 victory over Central Arkansas Christian at Baum Stadium.

"His baseball play speaks for itself, Mann said. "He is one of the two best baseball players I've ever coached -- the other being Bubba Carpenter (a former Razorback from 1989-91) when I was at West Fork. Both were similar in so many ways."

The mental toughness Holloway alluded to was needed to finish the game against CAC. Holloway had injured himself falling on the basepaths in the bottom of the sixth inning. It hurt to throw a curve, so he primarily threw fastballs to retire the side in order to finish off the victory.

"That was a lot of innings to pitch in that period of time," Holloway said. "Today's (pitch-count) rules would not let a pitcher throw as much as I did that week. At the time, being as competitive as I was, I never thought about it. I was always 'Hey, give me the ball' if this was a must-win game."

As a football player, he primarily played as a free safety, but Mann, who was the defensive coordinator, said he could fill other roles as well.

"On the football team, he played so many different roles for us in the secondary and as a receiver," Mann said. "He was a backup/emergency quarterback, so he could have played there if we had needed him to. He was phenomenal."

In one game against Dardanelle, he had three interceptions.

"We only lost 3 football games from grades 7-12," Holloway said. "We knew whenever we played someone that we were going to win. Looking back, we were so focused on detail. We would run plays over and over until it was good enough for the coaches. All of my teammates learned the importance of attention to detail."

Two of those losses were in the Class AAA semifinals -- to De Queen in 1998 and Nashville in 1999. The loss to the Scrappers was a bitter one as the Bearcats blew a 21-7 fourth-quarter lead and lost 28-27 in overtime.

Despite an early loss to Ozark in the 2000 season, Booneville stormed through the playoffs, setting up a rematch against Nashville in the championship game.

Holloway had 5 tackles and a 24-yard reception in the Bearcats' 29-21 win.

"We had a lot of great senior leaders in football and baseball in my senior year," Holloway said. "I believe that winning the state football title helped us win in baseball. I believe that success in one sport helps breeds success in another."

After graduating high school, Holloway was a dual-threat pitcher and hitter at Westark College, then still a two-year school. He then attended the University of Arkansas, where he helped the Hogs reach the 2004 College World Series. He pitched in the ninth inning in a loss to Arizona.

"I will never forget pitching in the College World Series," Holloway said. "I get to the mound, look around, and then I am thinking, 'Wow, I am in Omaha pitching at Rosenblatt Stadium in the College World Series. Everything that I have worked so hard for has brought me here.' I went from pitching Class AAA baseball to the College World Series. That was a cool experience."

After getting his degree in kinesiology with a K-12 education endorsement, Holloway was an assistant coach at Alma and Fort Smith Southside. In 2014, Holloway became the head baseball coach at Greenwood.

"I had a feeling he would follow in his father's footsteps," Mann said. "I knew he would be a successful coach. The same quality he exhibited as a player he exhibited as a coach."

He finished with a five-year record of 104-40, including a 32-3 campaign in 2018 that culminated in a Class 6A State Championship. Holloway is one of six baseball coaches in the state to play on a state championship team and coach a team to a state title.

Ironically, his star player was pitcher Connor Noland, who like Holloway, got to pitch in the College World Series this June for the Razorbacks.

"When people ask me if I think Connor is going to be successful as a pitcher at Arkansas, I tell them I know he is going to," Holloway said. "I have faith in what he has done. He is always going to give his best. We have seen the grit and composure from him this past season. I am super proud of what he accomplished this season. I believe 100 percent that Connor will be a major league pitcher."

By the end of the 2019 season, Holloway had already decided to step away from coaching to spend more time with his family, including three sons under the age of 10.

He now works for Paschal Air, Plumbing and Electric. The company is owned by former Arkansas teammate Charley Boyce. Casey Rowlett and Nick Schmidt, also former Razorback teammates of Holloway, work there as well.

"All of us are attention-to-detail people just like we were as baseball players," Holloway added. "We want things done the right way."

photo

JENNIFER SAVARIO Northwest Arkansas Times

May 13, 2004: Arkansas junior pitcher Trey Holloway throws a pitch against Texas-Pan American at Baum Stadium.

Sports on 07/14/2019

Upcoming Events