Holl In The Family

Growing up, Katy's Sam and Holly Holl were expected to play sports. At a young age they juggled four sports a piece. In second grade, mom Nylene, made Sam sit out a season of football because she argued that he was too small. She was convinced by her brother, the head football coach at Greenville High School, that he should play because of the athleticism known to the family. "I played baseball when I was younger too, but one day me and my sister were playing catch and she threw the ball hard and it hit me in the head," Sam laughed. "Ever since then I have stuck to football." Holly's path led to softball at eight years old after years of playing with her brother in Little League baseball. "I joined my first tournament team when I was 12," she said. "They thought that my glove was too small and I had to play right field. The next year I moved to a team that would let me catch and we placed second at a national tournament." Her success continued in high school as she played junior varsity as a freshman and was moved up to varsity that year for the playoffs. "Amazingly, I started at catcher my sophomore season and big things were expected of me," she said. "My sophomore year was one that I'll never forget. Playing in the state championship was a dream come true." The Katy Tigers were state runner-ups in 2006. After her junior year, college suitors hit Katy vying for Holly's services at catcher. "I got offers from Baylor, Texas, The University of Ohio, and Tulsa," she said. "The moment I saw Baylor's offer I accepted. That was where I have wanted to play since I was a little girl." Growing up Sam always found ways to get in extra football practice around the house at his sister's expense. "I had an extra set of pads and I used to dress her up and we would tackle each other. She was always the bigger one, but she would end up crying," he said. Sam knew growing up that he had to play sports because his cousins pushed him every day to play football. My cousin Jeremy, who is a safety at North Texas, and my other cousin Jason at TCU always told me to keep up the hard work and it would pay off in the end." Sam played varsity football his sophomore year and started at outside linebacker. "It was a big surprise for me to move to linebacker," he said. "I played safety my whole freshman year and then the first day of two-a-days, Coach Joseph told me that I was moving to linebacker." Sam played a lot on defense and was a starter on all special teams. In a game against Clements, Sam got hurt and wasn't able to play the last two games of the season. "It was so tough having to sit out in the state championship, but I know we have a great chance of getting back," he said. "Winning the state championship was indescribable, there were millions of feelings running through my head. Words can't even describe how I felt."-