Prospect Intro: Darik Holman (2021)
Henry Clay Sophomore Darik Holman has high hopes for his sophomore season for the Blue Devils. Darik is a self described combo guard who “can play the point, distribute the ball and run the offense or I can play the 2 and attack the basket.” He’s spent the off-season working to improve his jump shot and ball handling. Holman had a successful freshman season as part of a very good 2021 group for Coach Daniel Brown’s program. “I started on the Freshman team last season. I think I averaged around 12-14 points per game, 6 rebounds and 3-4 assists. We had a really good team and finished runner up in the 11th Region Freshman Tournament where I was named to the All-Tournament Team with two of my teammates, Skylar Riley and Ryan Russell (now at Lexington Catholic). I was happy with my individual performance but I feel like I could’ve done more. We had the best Freshman team in Lexington so I was happy about that, but overall I was disappointed because we came up short in the 11th Region championship game.”
Coming out of an AAU season where he changed teams for July, Darik was pleased with his performance for the season. “I started off playing with the 16U Ky Pressure coached by Maurice Hogan up until May. In July I switched over to 15U Louisville Prospects coached by Shawn Melton and coach Jay. While playing for the Ky Pressure I didn’t start but I was the 6th man off the bench and was always in the game late when it was close. I played ok with the Prospects but I definitely could’ve played better if I had more time to practice with those guys. Overall I think I played pretty good and got stronger.” Heading into the high school season, Holman hopes to take lessons learned in AAU and apply them to his sophomore year with the Blue Devils, “Once the Live Period started in July I felt the level of competition increase and the play more serious. So I’m going to take that aggressiveness and apply it to every game this coming season. Giving 100% on every possession, and trying to put my opponent away early in every game.”
Henry Clay has been in a regional championship for a while now and Darik Holman is hoping to help get them back to Rupp Arena. “My goals this season are to start on the JV and fight my way into the varsity rotation. I’m going to push my teammates to get better every day, compete at the highest level and hopefully contribute to helping my team make it to Rupp Arena for the state tournament.” If Clay is going to get back to Rupp, they will need to develop some depth and Darik Holman is hoping to be part of the rotation and eventually a bigger role in the future. Keep an eye out for him in the 11th region.