Up for six
PC’s Holt thrilled to get sixth season of eligibility
Injury-riddled Emmitt Holt was
unsure if he’d ever play for PC basketball again, but the NCAA granted him a sixth season.
PROVIDENCE – Imagine you’re forced to sit and watch as the show goes on without you. Your patience is being tested to the max, the role of anxious spectator proving to be most tough to digest.
Now imagine if your future is up in the air. You believe strongly that you should be afforded the chance to go out on your own terms, the last call of ultimate last calls.
Alas, the matter is out of your control. The decree will be handed down by a higher authority.
Amidst all the anxious feelings that come from awaiting word, you remain ever the optimist. Hopefully there will be a next season. In the meantime, why not make the time go by a little faster by working your tail off in the gym?
Welcome to Emmitt Holt’s world, where it’s about charging full speed ahead after receiving a new lease on his Friar basketball career.
“I’m back, man,” said Holt prior to the first official day of practice last week. Standing between the two courts inside the Ruane Friar Development Center, you could see the confidence emanating from him.
“A lot of confidence,” Holt quickly noted.
In August, the NCAA granted the high-spirited forward a sixth year of playing eligibility. After back-to-back seasons where his availability for Providence College was either short-circuited completely or severely curbed due to abdominal issues that proved downright scary, Holt has set out to author a comeback story that holds the potential to someday catch the fancy of some Hollywood screenwriter.
Not many NCAA student-athletes get the opportunity to hit the redo button, but Holt is bound and determined to make the most of his second chance to end his Friar career on the highest possible note.
“Knowing he’s able to be out on court and be 100 percent in his life, he’s that fiveyear-old kid in a candy store. He’s excited again,” said Caroline Holt-Logins – Emmitt’s mother – when reached earlier this week.
Added PC coach Ed Cooley, “Emmitt has made a big jump. He’s going to help us in some way. We’re very fortunate to have him. I’m just hoping he has some success for himself.”
For those unfamiliar with Holt’s trials and tribulations, let’s set the scene. Two years ago at this time, his life took a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse. In the blink of an eye, he went from the picture of perfect health to being rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital. After a battery of tests, surgery was deemed necessary to keep Holt alive.
Basketball was the furthest thing on everyone’s mind following a procedure where Holt lost approximately 30 pounds. Armed with a steelyeyed resolve, he embarked upon a slow-and-steady rehab program not long after he was deemed fit to return to campus life.
It was all systems go heading into the 2018-19 season, yet soon after takeoff, Holt found himself grounded once again. All of his diligence and persistence was not rewarded in kind as it became clear that he still wasn’t all the way back.
After playing sparingly in the season’s first six games, Holt was shut down. Understandably, it was a crushing turn of events that left him crossing his fingers for another chance.
“Trying to come back last year, at first it was discouraging, especially how hard I was working throughout the process,” said Holt. “Everybody says that hard work pays off. It wasn’t happening. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Luckily for Holt, not all options were off the table.
The path the Friars and Holt’s family embarked upon in the quest of the NCAA granting the player a sixth season was done with zero guarantees with the hope the reward would prove most ripe.
“Throughout the whole process, we heard that it wasn’t a normal thing but this is a special case,” said Caroline Holt-Logins. “We’re going to go for it and we’re just going to believe it’s going to happen.
“Emmitt is not one of those kids who doesn’t take a lot of no’s. That’s not what he does. He’s going to be persistent. He believes that, ‘I’ll pursue it until I get it,’” Caroline added.
Many a conversation was held in the spring and summer between Holt and John Rock, PC’s senior associate athletic director for heath & wellness. Why wouldn’t the NCAA find it in its heart to grant an additional year to a player who came up short in his initial foray to come back from a life-threating ordeal? More importantly, what’s the hold up? Why is the resolution taking forever?
“I definitely had a couple of (nervous moments). Are they going to give it to me? Are they not?” said Holt. “The more I talked with (Rock), the more I wondered why (the NCAA) wouldn’t give it to me. Once I understood that, I was like ‘There’s no reason why they wouldn’t.’”
Making the waiting game go by just a little quicker was made possible through countless hours on the hardwood, first at PC during summer sessions and again when Holt returned home to Rochester, N.Y. If he wasn’t working out at his high school alma mater (Webster Schroeder), he was continuing to get stronger under a trainer’s watchful eye.
Then came the news that officially meant Holt would be in the Friars’ fold for the 2019-20 season.
“Thank God our prayers were answered,” said Caroline Holt-Logins, the enthusiasm in her voice coming through loud and clear over the phone.
Looking back, Holt is appreciative for the foresight PC had. The Friars elected to cut bait for the 2018-19 season, yet they were more than willing to go to bat and see if they could recoup the lost time.
“Where would I be right now if I didn’t take that redshirt year, knowing that I wasn’t ready to play and not just force the issue … it wouldn’t have been a great situation,” said Holt.
For PC’s willingness to go above and beyond for her son, Caroline will be forever grateful.
“If they’re ever passing through our part of New York and need a place to stay, they have one,” she said. “Even if things didn’t work out, they said they would look for different options. PC will always have a special place in our hearts.”
As Holt gets set to embark on his final season, it’s clear he’ll never lose that chip on his shoulder. Listed at 6-foot7, 230 pounds, Holt believes that in terms of effectiveness, he’s near the level he displayed back in 2016-17 when he averaged 12.5 points and 5.4 rebounds and shot 52.3 percent from the field.
How he goes about his on-court business figures to be an eye-opener for PC fans who remember Holt as a rugged type who wasn’t afraid to bang away in the paint. Losing the amount of weight he did has yielded a quicker Holt, someone who can now take his man off the dribble.
He’s incorporated more ballhandling and believes he can shift seamlessly from the four-spot to the five should the need arise.
“I’m going to have to be able to knock the three-point shot down at a consistent rate,” said Holt. “I’m not going to do something that I know I can’t do. I’m just going to stay in my lane and know if I’m consistent with my work and effort, everything else will pan out.”
Until the games begin, Holt remains a wild card in terms of actual production. To see him on the court last week running sprints at full speed and shouting words of encouragement and helpful hints to his teammates is a sign that mentally and physically, he’s in a very good spot.
“If I could give a number above 100, I would say that,” said Caroline. “It’s night and day compared to last year.”
Holt is working on his masters in counseling; he hopes to someday become an athletic director. The plan is for his mom to be at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for as many games as possible starting with the Oct. 19 preseason game against Stonehill.
Last March, Holt made the decision to walk out to center court at The Dunk by his lonesome for Senior Day festivities. At the time, his future with the Friars was very much up in the air. Now, knowing full well that this truly represents the last hurrah in a PC uniform, it’s all about seizing the moment.
“He set goals for himself and showed that he wanted it … that he was going to do everything he could,” said Caroline Holt-Logins. “When we heard the news, we were just filled with joy. He deserved that chance.”