Almost a year ago Clarencio Holmes decided to forsake all other sports and devote his time to football.
After just one game, the diminutive senior already has almost half the yardage he gained in the entire 2010 season and his Hixson Wildcats are 1-0.
“He probably rushed for 400 or 500 yards last year,” recalled Hixson coach Houston White.
Holmes scored a pair of touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 36-20 victory over Walker Valley and earned Times Free Press Player of the Week honors for a performance that included 224 rushing yards on 21 carries and nine tackles.
“He would’ve had another touchdown. He returned a punt 96 yards but it was called back because of block in the back,” White said.
Holmes was a busy man. He sat out one series on offense and another on defense.
“He missed maybe five offensive plays,” said White, who also has Holmes returning kickoffs as well as playing on the Wildcats’ kickoff and punt coverage teams.
Asked if Holmes played a musical instrument and helped out in the halftime performances, White responded, “I’m sure if he wanted to he could.
“I knew this year he was going to be the man. He probably had a game or two last year with more than 100 [rushing] yards but over the summer he was power-cleaning 250 pounds.”
Walker Valley ran 68 plays to the Wildcats’ 36, possibly costing Holmes a much larger output. Of their 36 plays, all but 15 of those were Holmes’ number.
“We got kind of sloppy in the last quarter and we had a chance to really put them away. It’s something we’ll work on this week,” White said.
And Holmes will be out there with his teammates today, possibly running extra sprints or scrambling across the field doing bear crawls despite his performance, the best put up by a Hixson player in years. White, though, isn’t worried about wearing down his go-to guy, who avoided a number of hits with unbelievable physical skills.
“He reminds me a lot of [former Cowboys running back] Tony Dorsett. They guy never seemed to take a big-time shot. Clarencio has the explosion through the hole but he can stop on a dime to make a cut. He has great balance and body leverage where he never takes a clean shot,” White said. “Too, we have preached to him that the great running backs get better as the game goes on.”
White also said that a veteran offensive line deserved a share of the credit.
“There were several runs where he got to the hole and through it without being touched. All of the linemen graded out at least 85 percent, but Clarencio probably got 220 instead of 100 by making the cuts,” the coach observed.
He also had the nine tackles from linebacker.
“That’s what makes him a complete player,” White said. “He’s always gracious, and I’m sure he will tell anybody that the lines deserve much of the credit. He’s a super, super kid and some college would be getting a tremendous player if they signed him.”