Plano - The Herald News - Joliet (IL)

Tim Holt of Plano reflects on his son, T.J. Holt, who was recently killed in a car accident. (1) T.J. Holt (2)

PLANO -- False hope filled Tim Holt's mind as he drove to the hospital to identify his son's body.Maybe 14-year-old T.J., a star football and baseball player from Plano, was just permanently injured. That would be OK. There would be ways to deal with that.'I'm thinking Wheelchair Olympics. Just be alive,' Holt said.

It was only after he saw his son -- and lay beside him for several hours -- that he realized how serious the car crash had been. T.J. was dead, just weeks before he was to start chasing his dream on the football field at Joliet Catholic Academy.

Somewhere in the mix of thoughts and emotions, Holt told himself he had to find a way to make something good come from T.J.'s death. Now, he is starting a scholarship to benefit the kind of kid he's sure T.J. would have turned out to be.

Starting this year, the Holt family will award a $1,000 to a student-athlete at Plano High School.

The recipient will be a student who plays at least two sports, carries a 3.0 grade-point average, demonstrates leadership skills and plans to attend a Division I, II or III college.

'The idea, hopefully, is that the kid instead of a C will get a C plus, instead of a B will get a B plus or an A minus,' said Holt, a youth sports coach who tells his players to concentrate on their grades above all else. 'There's a lot of kids out there who are struggling, and $1,000 will go a long way.'

Although T.J. chose to attend high school at Joliet Catholic, his father decided to offer the scholarship at Plano High because that's where T.J. got his start in athletics. He was in Plano Youth Tackle Football for five years, and he played for two seasons with the Hurricanes youth baseball team, which draws players from the Plano area.

'The kids and the community in Plano was a springboard to get him to the next level, which was Joliet Catholic,' said Holt.

The scholarship is one of the few in town offered locally, Plano High Athletic Director Jim Schmidt said.

'He could use that money in a hundred different ways. But he's chosen Plano, and we're very honored,' Schmidt said. 'Most of these kids knew T.J. ... T.J was one of those athletes you get about once every 20 years.'

Whereas a student will receive money for college, the scholarship will give Holtsomething more valuable in return: a mechanism to help him cope, and a way to make sure T.J. won't be forgotten.

That's not a problem now. Ever since T.J. died in a car crash about three weeks ago -- the crash also killed his grandfather and severely injured a 14-year-old boy from Newark -- T.J. has been on lots of people's minds.

There was a two-and-a-half hour wait just to get into the wake, and more people visit T.J.'s burial place than anyone else's at the cemetery. Friends and teammates drop by the house frequently.

In a few years, though, when those kids graduate and go to college, Holt wants to be sure his son remains strong in people's memories.

'I want to turn it into a prestigious award at graduation,' he said. 'It depends on how far I can go, and how long I can take it.'

Right now, the scholarship is small. But Holt has big ideas. Depending on how much money he can gather, he's thinking of offering it to more than one student, offering it for the full four years of college, and even bringing it to other communities where T.J. was also well-known for his athletic ability.

So far, Holt has received enough to fund the scholarship for a few years. There have been lots of donations, in various amounts, from the most unlikely of sources.

'I got kids out mowing lawns and giving money,' Holt said. 'These kids looked up to him so much.'

Donations are being accepted at Harris Bank, which has an office at 2005 W. Route 34, Plano.

'I'm not asking everyone for giant sums of money,' Holt said. 'The whole idea is to help the kids, help the community, to give it a little spark.'