University of Virginia running back Mike Hollins is letting himself be healed by football four months after he was wounded in a shooting that killed three of his teammates.
The fifth-year footballer, who is a native of Baton Rouge, La., opened up about his return to the field for the first time after practice on Tuesday. He told reporters during a Zoom call that playing football again has allowed him to move past some of the pain and grief he’s felt in wake of the mass shooting at the University of Virginia.
“It’s freeing for me,” he said. “I don’t have to think, I just play.”
Hollins was one of two people wounded when a fellow student in November opened fire on a bus returning to Charlottesville from a field trip in Washington, D.C. He recalled how his recovery started the moment he woke up in the hospital. He’s had to relearn how to use his core and rebuild some key muscles — but the mental recovery has been the biggest challenge for Hollins.
He said he didn’t learn about the deaths of his teammates — Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry — until days after the shooting. At one point, Hollins said he considered leaving UVA and starting fresh elsewhere but ultimately decided to stay and live out the athletic dreams of his late teammates.
“They don’t leave my mind,” he told reporters. “It’s a constant motivation, constant drive, constant effort to keep their flame lit and keep their legacy going.”
Hollins has already earned his degree from UVA in American and African American Studies, WVIR reported.
He is currently working on getting his Master’s in higher education. He is also taking classes about mental health and how to support college athletes struggling with mental health issues.
