The Dre Holman-Deji Karim connection

There was almost a little bit of irony in the fact that the story on Putnam City North running back Dre Holman ran last Friday, and former Putnam City North running back Deji Karim made his NFL debut on Sunday.

With a story like Holman’s, that has a lot of layers and a lot of intriguing angles, not everything that is interesting can fit in the print space available. One of my favorite parts that didn’t make the cut was Holman’s relationship with Karim.

It started one day late last winter when PC North coach Bob Wilson pulled Holman out of basketball practice and told him there was someone he wanted him to meet.

It was Karim, who took some time to tell Holman his story of how he let his grades take a backseat, forcing him to go to NEO out of high school, then to Southern Illinois, despite having major Division I talent.

Holman is a 3.5 student, so it’s not something people are worried about with him, but Karim wanted to provide some mentoring to a young kid following in his footsteps.

And it didn’t stop there. Karim came back to work out with Holman and the two — who are actually built very similarly at 5-foot-9 and about 195 pounds — have stayed in touch ever since.