May 19, 2024

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Each time Virginia’s Mike Hollins takes a handoff, tucks the ball under his arm and squeezes it tight to his surgically repaired midsection, the running back can’t help but remember the three teammates he lost during an on-campus shooting in November.

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Hollins was one of two students wounded in the tragedy that claimed the lives of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry, his closest friend on the team. Scars from procedures that helped save Hollins’s life after he was shot in the abdomen are constant reminders of the harrowing episode.

“When times get hard, everyone thinks of them and finds a way to push through,” Hollins said. “That’s where you get your motivation, your drive from, and if you don’t, then your mind is in the wrong place because that’s the perfect source. There is no better source to drive you forward than three people you love so deeply who were taken.

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