East Duplin's Battle Holley solidifies own legacy with state title

East Duplin’s Battle Holley has held onto one particular piece of advice from his legendary coaching father, Jack, during his time walking the sidelines as a high school head football coach.

“Something my daddy told me long ago before I got into coaching was that you can’t try to be somebody that you are not,” Holley said. “You have to be yourself. And that’s what I try to do.”

ALDRIDGE GETS HIS RING:Longtime East Duplin football coach Brian Aldridge feels the 'cement building' come off back after state championship

STATE CHAMPIONS:State champions! East Duplin defeats Reidsville 24-21 to win championship

Jack Holley died in 2013 after winning more high school football games than any coach in North Carolina. He was 412-96-9 when he retired in 2011 from a coaching career that saw him coach at six schools. Jack Holley coached in 14 state championship games and won a private school title in 2008 with Harrells Christian Academy.

On Saturday, his son added to the Holley legacy when he led East Duplin to its first state championship with a 24-21 victory over state power Reidsville in the NCHSAA 2-A final in Chapel Hill.

Winning a state championship is special enough, but this marked the Panthers’ first title in program history and the 2022 team will certainly be remembered by Beulaville folks for a long time. East Duplin was a complete team as all three facets helped East Duplin win the championship.

And leading that team is Holley.

Many area coaches have complimented Holley for being a good coach. They respect what he’s done at East Duplin by taking a team that may not pass the eye test year to year, but one that simply shows up to work on Friday night, or in their latest game, Saturday morning.

Holley’s efforts before this season led to him being named the East coach for next year’s East-West All-Star game.

“He always has his guys prepared and ready to play,” Jacksonville coach Beau Williams said.

The Panthers were prepared in the state final against the favored Rams, who entered with 19 NCHSAA titles, including four since 2016. Reidsville was the more athletic team, but East Duplin played the game how it wanted by controlling the tempo and time of possession.

“We needed to get them off the field and we couldn’t,” Reidsville coach Jimmy Teague said.

Holley is 140-54 overall as a head coach, which includes two seasons at Kinston and one at Wallace-Rose Hill. He is 109-44 since he became the Panthers’ coach in 2011.

While you do see some of his father in Battle in terms of his ability to mold hard-nosed players and win in old-school fashion for straight-up smash-mouth football, Holley has established his own identity as a coach.

I am not saying other coaches are not like this, but one thing in particular I respect Holley for is his willingness to not accept credit for the Panthers’ successes. Holley is quick to recognize his assistant coaches and has repeatedly praised his players for not being selfish.

And he also credits those who have helped the program prior to this season.

“Everybody has been involved and that is the key,” Holley said. “There were a lot of things that went into winning this thing. This year’s team won it, but there were so many other teams and players who helped us get to this point.”

But before the Panthers’ run to the state title, Holley felt the burden of East Duplin being the only Duplin County team to not win a championship. He shared that weight with former head coach Brian Aldridge and the community.

East Duplin has fielded strong teams for several years, but often times ran into a road block in the form of Clinton and even last year in Wallace-Rose Hill in the third round. Now that bad luck is a distance memory.

Holley and the Panthers have created their own positive memories.

“Like Coach Aldridge said, it feels like something has been lifted off your shoulders,” Holley said. “But at the end of the day, you do want to win, but that is not the only reason you coach. Dust will get on the trophy and on the rings one day, but you can’t take away the memories. And we try to help the young people along the way and learn things from our program that will last them a lifetime.”

Chris Miller can be contacted via email at chris.miller@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @jdnsports.

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: East Duplin's Battle Holley solidifies own legacy with state title