CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – As he testified in court last week, former Virginia running back Mike Hollins struggled with being the public face of the November 2022 campus shooting tragedy, talking to the media and appearing at UVA events honoring his three murdered teammates and his own remarkable comeback.

Still, after a judge sentenced the gunman who murdered his friends and wounded him and another student to five life sentences, the maximum possible, Hollins walked out of the courthouse and, once again, agreed to speak for the victims, their families and himself.

“They give me the strength from above to get up, and they lift me up,” Hollins said, standing in the white light of television cameras on an otherwise dark night as a light rain fell and most other members of the packed gallery walked briskly past the assembled journalists.

Hollins finds strength in the memory of his best friend, D’Sean Perry, and their former teammates, Devin Chandler and Lavel Davis Jr. The three were shot to death aboard a charter bus as it returned to UVA from a field trip to Washington D.C. 

Hollins made it off the bus, then returned because, he said, he couldn’t leave Perry behind. The gunman and Hollins came face to face just outside the bus, and Hollins was shot in the back as he turned to flee. 

The bullet went through him. Hollins spent a week in the hospital, undergoing a pair of surgeries. 

Four months later, Hollins returned to the football field. Not as a guest or a motivational speaker. He was back in pads, doing what he’s done since he was a young boy growing up in Louisiana – running with the ball.

Now, though, Hollins was running with a purpose. He said then, he was playing for Perry, Chandler and Davis, “to keep their flame lit and their legacy going.”

Hollins played his first game after the shooting on Sept. 2, 2023, carrying three times and catching a pass against Tennessee in Nashville. 

A week later, he played his first home game at Scott Stadium, scoring a pair of rushing touchdowns in one of the most memorable and emotional moments in the venue’s history. 

“Mike Hollins is just the picture of inspiration,” UVA coach Tony Elliott said this week. “His story is still still being written and it’s gonna be an unbelievable testimony when it’s all said and done.  But he’s just a model of inspiration and taking what cards life gives you and playing to the best of your ability.”

Humbly, Hollins agrees that his story can be a model for others dealing with tragedy.

Last season, he joined the football staff as a graduate assistant. But Hollins wanted to focus on something deeper, more spiritual. 

He had developed strong relationships with the team’s past and current chaplains and was heavily involved in UVA’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes, even before the shooting. He decided campus ministry was the area he could make the biggest difference.

“I moved to coaching first, and it wasn’t enough hands on impact for me,” Hollins said. “So FCA was my next step. I’m looking to just share my testimony with the young athletes that have faced trauma or even haven’t faced trauma, but have questions about their faith. So much has been answered for me, and I just want to give back.”

FCA area director Vincent Croce, the team’s current chaplain, had first met Hollins back in the summer of 2022.

“I know, witnessing it firsthand, that is what carried him through – along with the support of friends and family – the tragedy,” Croce said.

Croce became the football team’s chaplain that July. Hollins and Perry were his most devoted attendees to FCA huddles, the Bible study sessions the organization held every Sunday.

The first time Croce had the chance to deliver a sermon at an area church, Hollins and Perry were seated in the pews to hear and support him. 

After the shooting, Croce and Hollins grew even closer, as Hollins leaned even deeper into his faith to help him navigate the tragedy. 

When Hollins’ playing career came to a close at the end of the 2023 season, Croce let him know there was a place for him with FCA – if he was interested. 

“‘You let me know when you start feeling that pull,’” Croce said he told Hollins at that time. “That timetable was a lot faster than what I anticipated.”

Hollins began working with FCA this year. If he and the organization can raise enough funds, he’ll become a full-time employee. His work will include running Bible studies, doing one-on-one mentorship and running outreach events. He’ll work with UVA football and, eventually, other programs that don’t have a full-time ministry presence at the moment. 

“In Mike’s words, he’s been given this story, this testimony that he knows is meant to impact a ton of people, to give them hope, to help them with resilience and endurance and long suffering,” Croce said. “His story is going to be inextricably tied to his personal mission.”

It’s another way Hollins honors the memory of his slain teammates, a mission that’s never far from his mind.

It’s why he was in the courtroom every day last week, testifying himself, then observing every other witness, hearing and reliving every painful detail of the day that changed his life forever. 

Hollins sat between his mother, Brenda – who anxiously squeezed a stress ball throughout the proceeding – and Perry’s mother, Happy.

Hollins clutched his Bible. 

“Coming in, I think all the families wanted justice, you know, for the lives lost and the just the long lasting grief that we’ve all been experiencing,” Hollins said after the sentencing was announced. “I think that to add on to that, we just wanted to look for a little bit of closure out of what happened.”

As his impromptu question-and-answer session approached the 10-minute mark, an advocate approached and reminded Hollins he didn’t have to stay to talk.

Hollins said he could take a few more questions. 

If there’s anything Hollins has proven over the past three years, it’s that there’s nothing he can’t handle.