Homecoming has multiple meanings for Holden family

University of South Dakota defensive lineman Blake Holden has matured as a football player. He knows that and so do plenty of others who have watched him play. He has also stepped it up considerably as a person.

The arrival of Ilah Rose Anne Holden in Anchorage, Alaska, to Holden and his girlfriend Sepa Tua’i late this summer has a lot to do with that.

The little one is three months old now and regularly attends Coyote home games. She also has entertained visits from her father’s teammates. They seem to hit it off pretty well with the kid, who Holden says doesn’t cry too much.

“My buddies have come over and have met her, and when we take her to my games the rest of my teammates have had a chance to see her,” said Holden, a 6-3, 290-pound sophomore who is in his fourth year at USD. “Everybody has been really good with it. They’ve helped me out with everything. I couldn’t ask for better relationships with those guys.”

Tua’i, a nursing major from Barrow, Alaska, has had sections of her own world turned upside-down – or sideways, at least – with the birth of her child.

“She’s been great,” Holden said. “She’s been very, very good at being a mom and going to school at the same time. It’s been a challenge for sure, but it’s all working out very well.”

Holden has gone from trying to become a better football player while maintaining his academics to adding a third and far more important element. It all matters, of course, but the priorities change. The head-on approach for that is working for the new dad.

“He’s taking a situation and making the best of it,” said his defensive line coach, Corey Brown. “I went through the same situation when I was in college so I could share some things about that experience. He is taking the right steps as a young father to put his best foot forward. It’s been great to see that. It’s a lot of growing up to do in a short time but it’s all been positive with him.”

Fatherhood may or may not be helping him become a better football player, but there’s no denying the timing of the two make it a possibility. Holden, who played baseball, basketball and was on the track team in addition to starring on the football field at Watertown, got into five games last year. Now he’s a starter.

“It’s my first year playing a lot so there have been some growing pains,” Holden said. “But against NDSU and SDSU I felt like I came into myself a little more and started playing halfway decent football. Last week I was pretty fundamentally sound – now I just have to go out and make some more plays.”

When Holden began getting involved in sports, his USD-graduated parents, Chad and Kari, encouraged him to try all sports. He heeded that advice initially then just kept going with it. The result was that he always had something going on. At times it involved combining two sports at once.

“I think that has really helped me as an athlete,” he said. “It’s helped me in other ways, too. Going from football to basketball to baseball and track gave me a chance to meet a lot of new people in addition to diversifying my athletic abilities. It has carried over into my work-ethic, too.”

That adaptability factor could be a factor, too, in his emergence as a solid starting defensive lineman. 

“He’s a young man who has worked at his craft and gotten better and better,” Brown said. “He’s become a bright spot for us upfront. He was a rotational guy last year cutting his teeth and learning some new things. He has continued to make the most of his reps and really has applied the coaching he has received.”

It has definitely been a tough stretch for the Coyotes (1-5), who go into this week’s Dakota Days contest against 14th-ranked Southern Illinois looking to end a three-game losing streak. Holden is well aware things have to get better. So do his teammates.

“We know that all the hard work that we’ve been doing through last winter and summer is going to pay off for us,” he said. “We’ve talked about it a lot this week. In this sport if you keep doing all the good things and doubling-down on them eventually football is going to love you back. We come into every practice with a positive attitude, we have positive meetings and we’re surrounded by good people.”

A redshirt season followed by a COVID season has meant Holden, a Missouri Valley Conference honor roll member, can continue to play football for two more years after this season. He will have a bachelor’s degree this spring and plans to keep playing for the Coyotes. Just as the day-to-day routine is different than it used to be, however, so too are the considerations as he looks forward.

“I’m going to pursue a graduate degree in education and during that process I want to play football, too,” Holden said. “Whatever it is, it’s going to happen with the best interests of my family in mind. I’m not just looking out for myself.”