Holyfield running into his own name

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. --- Here in a few years, it might be time for a documentary on the Old College Knights youth football team in metro Atlanta.

Long a fertile ground for top talent, the O.C.K. League might never have been able to trace the football genesis of two recruits as simultaneously coveted as 2016 prospects Nigel Warrior, who just last week told VolQuest.com about scoring his first touchdown in the league, as well as four-star running back Elijah Holyfield, who remembers the 4-year-old Warrior crossing Holyfield's path on the gridiron.

"I remember him, yeah. Me and Nigel are cool," says Holyfield, built like a college football player --- or a boxer, of which yes, he has both his own history and that of his father, Evander Holyfield. "I was five, too [for his first touchdown]. It was just a toss, and I just kept running. One of those."

So now all these years later, who's the better player: Warrior or Holyfield?

"I am," Holyfield says with a sheepish smile, retracing his football steps from College Park to Fayette to Sandy Creek's junior leagues and then on to middle school and finally here at Woodward Academy.

Holyfield still has an older brother, now 17, who remains a promising young fighter, but Elijah strictly is focused on football. Offers to continue at the collegiate level pour in regularly from across the nation, and he's planning a West Coast trip to see Southern Cal, among others, this summer. He'll make his way back to Knoxville to visit with Butch Jones, Robert Gillespie and other members of the Vols' staff doggedly recruiting him, and Holyfield is lining up other stops as well.

"I've met Mike Tyson, met a lot of people. Too many to think of," Holyfield says. "I did box for a little while and then I kind of was like, 'I don't really like it.' I was good but it just wasn't my thing. My brother still boxes. We started when we were eight. I stopped when I got to eighth grade, but he kept going. He's 17 now.

"I feel like it could have helped me [with footwork in football], but I'll never know if it would have changed me as a running back if I hadn't boxed. I had 25 fights, so I was 21-4. Seven TKOs. I never really knocked anybody completely out because the fights were so short."

And meeting 'Iron Mike'?

"He was real nice, introduced himself. He was just a real cool guy. He actually came to my brother's fight here in Atlanta, so that's where I met him at," he recalls.

Now, most days Holyfield has to be knocked from the War Eagles' pristine, state-of-the-art weight room or stopped from his relentless private training sessions. He's now member in Woodward's 1,100-pound club, noticing weight totals slightly outdated --- a mere 1,095 pounds --- and noting the board needs to be updated.

"I passed it recently, I'm at 1,130 pounds now. Me and the guy at the top (Max Richardson) are lifting partners, so we get it in. He plays middle linebacker, has six or seven offers," Holyfield explains.

"I bench 365, I squat 455 and then I power-clean 310, 315.

"It's pretty hard [to keep him out of the weight room]. I stay in the weight room. They get worried about me sometimes, say they don't want me to lift too much. I lift here at school and then I've got a trainer and then I've got speed and agility. I'm full working out right now. Right now I'm in track season, so I kind of have to lay back off the heavy lifting. But I get it in in the summer, it's grind time."

Holyfield owns a personal-best 10.8 in the 100 and also runs on the school's state-bound 4x100 relay team.

But football remains his only long-term focus in terms of athletic competition. He studies all successful running backs but doesn't hesitate to name his all-time favorite. Nor does he wish to bask in the Holyfield name without logging the requisite work.

"My favorite player of all-time is LaDainian Tomlinson, so I try to model my game after him but I watch all of them," Holyfield says. "I've never met him but I've talked to him on the phone. My dad ran into him and he handed him his phone and he talked to me. So that was pretty cool.

"It's pretty cool to kind of get out of those footsteps a little bit (earning notoriety for his on-field talents), but I think it adds pressure to me and then I think the pressure ends up helping because I think I'll work harder than some people because I want to get out of that and be my own person."

Nonetheless, he'll listen to dad when the advice can help. Elijah also keeps a level-headed approach to the recruiting monster.

"I don't let it get to me. If I ever feel like I'm getting overwhelmed, I can just not answer my phone or something like that," he says. "I can control how much of that pressure I have on me, because I've still got to do school work and stuff like that. I think I've handled it well. I had my best year in school and best year on the football field, so it's been good.

"(Dad) says just remember that you have to put yourself first in this process. He tells me, 'You've still got to come in here and lift every day. You've still got to come in here and do the school work. You've got to do it for yourself.'"