ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE
TYPE: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Scott Holleman looks like such a nice young man.
The sort whose cheeks tempt a grandmotherly pinch.
One whose manners are polished to a fault.
A young man soft of speech and firm of handshake.
These qualities may not be readily apparent on a wrestling mat. It is on this padded battle pit that Holleman assumes a whole new personality.
A personality that his opponent may have difficulty adjusting to.
None have this season. Holleman, a 171-pound senior for Shawsville High's wrestling team, has chewed up and spit out eight straight foes, five of them by pin and another by technical fall.
In short, he has been a one-man Chicago Bulls so far this winter.
Holleman is known from one of Group A Region C to the other and beyond. He is the defending state runner-up and adorns his resume with an 87-13 record after three-plus varsity campaigns. The fellow who beat him in the state championship bout last year has been graduated.
Life is good.
Don't assume the living is easy, though.
``All the time people are coming up to me saying, `I hear that the guy who beat you last year for the state championship has graduated. You ought to win it this year.' That's a lot of pressure.''
No doubt. Holleman has been up to challenges before, though.
In only the second year he'd ever wrestled, he went 24-3 and won the Three Rivers District 152-pound crown as a freshman. Holleman might have won more matches than that had he not been injured in the district championship, jerking some cartilage loose from his ribs.
The next week, his body didn't cooperate much and he didn't place at regionals. He came back strong as a sophomore after moving up to 160. At districts, he finished second but redeemed himself by winning the region and finishing fifth in the state. Last year was one tail whipping after another as he went 30-3.
The record was commendable enough as it was, but the fact that he usually gave away three or four pounds to wrestle at 171 made it even more so.
This is the fellow that new coach Jeff Maynard inherited when he took over this year. Maynard is impressed.
``He has a real good positive attitude,'' Maynard said. ``Every match I've seen him in, he's simply been stronger than the athletes he's wrestled against. He has very good strength, especially in the upper body.''
Not that his lower body is somehow deficient. Holleman was the leading rusher for the Shawnees football team this fall, rambling for 774 yards and six touchdowns in nine games. The 106 tackles he dispensed was the second highest total on the team.
That pretty much establishes that this guy is strong from head to foot.
If you were going to get him, last week would have been a good time. The bad weather layoff had an impact on him.
``We'd had one practice in two weeks before I wrestled against Grayson County last week,'' Holleman said. ``That was rough. With all the snow, there wasn't anything to do except sit around, watch TV, and eat.''
Holleman was up to the task of wrestling successfully after the long layoff. It took him until the second period to pin his Grayson County opponent.
Maynard has not had to do much with Holleman expect turn him loose and watch him work.
``I got some good coaching from [then head coach] Mike Blevins and Ben Boyd last year,'' Holleman said. ``They had a lot of experience. Coach Blevins was a state champion and Coach Boyd was a two-time state champion. That helped me out a lot.''
That probably helps to alleviate some of the pressure, but Holleman isn't shy about taking on more. Check out his goals for this year. He only has two: To go undefeated and to win the state.
So far, he's making a good stab at it.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Scott Holleman of Shawsville High Schoolby CNBworks to pin a Grayson County opponent during a match last week.
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