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WOODVILLE — Wilkinson County Christian Academy started off the season on a five-game win streak, made the MAIS 8-Man semi-finals and came a touchdown shy of beating DeSoto, the eventual state champs. 

Head coach Randy Holloway saw his team go 9-3 in a season where they overcame obstacles of injuries to Roderick Bailey and several offensive linemen. For his coaching efforts and work as WCCA’s headmaster off the field, Holloway is the 2021 All-Metro Football coach of the year in his 29th season of coaching. 

“I’ve been chosen as a district coach of the year numerous times but never this,” Holloway said. “This is one of the highlights of my career.” 

Faith is what brought him into coaching. He put his life in God’s hands and everything worked out. In college, he studied at Pearl River Community College and the University of Southern Mississippi before he ear a graduate degree at Grand Canyon University. His path to coaching began well before then. 

“In recess I was always drawing up plays for teams back in seventh grade,” Holloway said. “It was in my blood and it was something I wanted to do since then. I had an older brother who was always supportive and my parents would always come to the games. They supported my decision to go into education and coaching.” 

In the last three seasons, Holloway’s squad has gone 9-3, 13-1 and 9-3 again. While his team did not meet the goals of winning district or winning state, they did make strides and worked hard to overcome obstacles. 

Some of those obstacles were injuries. In a game against Prentiss Christian Academy, Roderick “Slim” Bailey suffered an ankle injury and quarterback Andrew Sessions had to step up and lead the offense. He got the team going in the right direction, Holloway said. 

In a game against Newton County Academy, he was the only coach left on the sideline due to COVID-19. WCCA would go on to win 32-0 against a pretty tough opponent. 

Holloway’s coaching career

His football coaching career began at South Choctaw Academy in Toxey, Alabama where he coached for a few years. Raymond Smith, a former USM football player, was his mentor in his first season and taught him to never be scared to throw the football. His next coaching was at Union Academy in Georgetown. 

In 2004, a job came open in Prentiss where he coached as an assistant for Prentiss Christian School until 2012. 

From 2012 to 2019, he was the head coach for the Saints before an opening at WCCA caught his attention. Several people approached him about applying for the headmaster and head football coach position and he did. 

“I wanted more. I was getting older in age and wanted to expand into the administrative side and run the school as a whole,” Holloway said. “I spent three days in the community before I accepted the position. Baton Rouge is 45 minutes away, Natchez and St. Francisville are 30 minutes away. McComb is an hour away and Prentiss is two hours away so it wasn’t like I was going to New York City. The Community is really behind that school 100 percent. You could not ask for a better small community like we have.” 

It takes a village for him to balance football coaching duties and being a headmaster of WCCA. Assistant principals and others help him out during the football season. Once basketball season rolls around he can do more of his headmaster duties. 

Meaning of coaching

Football coaching to Holloway is more than x’s and o’s, it is bigger than the game. Coaching is about taking someone else’s kids and molding them into men. 

“Coaching to me is having people’s kids and spending more time with them during the football season,” Holloway said. “I watch them become productive men and husbands. When you see those kids graduate and become citizens and fathers that is what it is all about to me. To be able to talk about God’s word and what he has done for me is important too. The fact we can still incorporate Him means a lot.”