DETROIT – Balaal Hollings is either a tragedy waiting to happen or a miracle in the making. Maybe he’s both.
Hollings, 18, a recently graduated senior class president and six-sport athlete at Detroit Northwestern High, is convinced that his faith in God has gotten him over every hurdle – even the one that nobody figured he would clear.
He took a random, ricochet bullet to the head at an April 6 house party in Detroit.
“Loud music and pretty girls were the last things I remember,” he said Friday afternoon.
The bullet blew away part of his skull and lodged in his brain. The surgeon at the Detroit Medical Center’s Sinai-Grace hospital, Aria Sabit, told the Detroit Free Press, “He was essentially the definition of dead.”
And so the young man with so much promise – the one who had overcome his father leaving at age 3 and his mother, Janice, dying of heart failure when he was 16 -- was hanging by a thread.
But he pulled through in ways nobody expected. Hollings was told he would never speak or walk again. He could do neither for weeks. He recalled the frustration of hearing the love and support of family and friends in his hospital bed and being unable to respond.
But he worked diligently with physical and speech therapists and can now walk several hundred feet unassisted and speak perfectly with his normal articulate flair. The only visible sign of the tragedy he endured is the safety helmet he wears to protect his skull. He said in recent days the possibility of a “full-ride scholarship” to Eastern Michigan University has surfaced.
Hollings' first thoughts upon regaining consciousness?
“I was grateful I made it back, no doubt,” he said. “But my first thought was about playing football. I thought, ‘Man, I made it! Will I ever play football again?’ ”
Hollings, a 6-foot-2, 320-pound nose guard on defense who played every position on the offensive line for the Colts, had planned on playing football at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis.
“I feel there’s a chance I can still play football,” Hollings said. “Remember that the doctor said I would never walk and talk again, and I broke down those barriers. You can’t listen to man, you have to listen to God.
“I’m a Christian, and I love God with my whole heart. I know it is Him who brought me through all of this.”
His mom took him to the Triumphant Life Christian Church in nearby Highland Park.
“My mom was the driving force in my life and my only support system,” Hollings said. “She had such a good sense of humor. When she died, it was just her time. God called her home, and her passing was so peaceful.”
He is the youngest of four children, and his sister, Nubalia, became his legal guardian. Balaal said he “bumped heads all the time” with her but said their relationship has improved significantly in recent years. “Yeah, definitely,” Balaal added.
Still, losing what he described as “my only support system” would’ve proved disastrous for most children in a city with mean streets at every intersection.
“God kept his hand on me,” Hollings said. “And my godparents, April and Marcus Cobb, stepped up and all but adopted me.”
He accomplished much as a student-athlete. Hollings also played golf and was a baseball first baseman. He was a basketball center and a shot putter and discus thrower in track and field. He also swam the 50-meter freestyle. As class president, he is proudest of the exchange program established with West Bloomfield High and a “court program” that allows student leaders to help deal with the indiscretions of their fellow students.
“Balaal is in tune with who he is and what he wants to do,” said Chuck Johnson, a former USA Today and Flint Journal sportswriter who is the sports information director for the Detroit Public Schools.
Hollings received ESPN’s Rise Above Award as a junior and recently was given the Spirit of Detroit Award from the Detroit City Council and the Youth Citizen of the Year Award from the Detroit Rotary Club that included a $4,000 scholarship.
He turned 18 on June 3, threw out the first pitch before a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park on June 5. And on June 4, Hollings’ classmates, who voted him both most likely to succeed and class clown, cheered wildly as he made their graduation commencement and delivered a speech, saying, “It is so good to be alive.”
“They went nuts,” Hollings said of his classmates. “I was overwhelmed. I felt the love. And the Tigers fans went crazy for me, too.”
He addressed the Detroit Lions at their minicamp in Allen Park. They each took a knee and encircled him.
“Doctors saying he wasn’t supposed to live, let alone walk and talk, and he’s jogging up to the huddle to break us down," Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson said. "That’s powerful stuff. He sat there in that huddle and he said, ‘We need more strong black men in this community.’ He’s talking to guys like myself. Even though we do what we do in the community, we can always do more.”
Hollings leads at every turn – even with a huddle of NFL players that included his favorites, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and wide receiver Calvin Johnson.
“It was good,” Hollings said. “Calvin Johnson autographed a pair of his Nike cleats for me. I said, ‘Don’t worry, your feet are smaller than mine.’ I wear size 17; Calvin wears size 15.”
He chuckled.
Life is good. Hollings will attend either Wayne State or Eastern Michigan in the fall. He’ll hold onto his dream of playing football again.
He says a bullet in his brain can’t stop God's plans for him.
Dave Dye of FOXSportsDetroit.com contributed to this report.
A tribute to the spirit and accomplishment of Balaal Hollings appears on the Facebook page of the Detroit Public School League.
