King Caleb “The Midas Touch”
This story started long ago, but the writings have been on the wall for as long as anyone can remember. When I first heard the name, Caleb Holt it was from his then AAU coach, Coach Moo Moo saying, "Have you seen Caleb play, he is the best player in the country”. I laughed because it's 100 people who think they have the #1 player in the country. Caleb may have been in the 3rd or 4th grade, and the Huntsville Flight were on the road making a name for themselves, especially in the south. During that summer, I still never got a chance to see him play but was being told most of the people they played against thought he was a 2025 kid because of his size and athleticism. Where most parents would boast and brag about playing up, Caleb's parents didn't see it as anything to brag about. Caleb’s mom, Mrs. Vonetta finds the silver lining in every situation and is sweet as can be and his dad, Coach Desman is always cerebrally critiquing Caleb’s game to make sure the things that need to get worked on are always being noted. While always vouching for other kids as much or more than their son; both are doing it in a way that you would think that they don't understand just how talented their kid is, but they do. To the Holt’s it’s just business as usual with Caleb and his friends competing together and building something organically from a young age.
Fast forward to Caleb's 6th-grade year, my partner Brian Patton has always been close enough to grassroots basketball through his program Fast Five and also helping with Global Grassroots. At the time he had a pretty solid "local" team, no pun intended, but he wanted to go compete at the biggest tournament in the country. This tournament had every ranked team from the South, Midwest, and East Coast in the building; The Bullseye New Year's tournament. Brian knew if he had any chance of just competing, he would need Caleb. Not only did Caleb come, but Coach Desman brought Georgia natives CJ Harper and Jamarion Draper to join the team as well.
It didn't take long to notice how good Caleb was, he dominated every play on both ends of the floor that weekend. Putting up numbers like 25-30 points, 15 plus rebounds, and 6 or 7 assists each game against the top teams in the country like it was nothing. The better the team was the better his stats got. Needless to say, Fast Five went from unknown nationally to a top 5-10 team in the country. On the way home I told Coach Desman I was going to rank Caleb #1 in the country and everything was about to change for them. I don't know if he believed me then, but here we are now. This isn't something to brag about, a blind man could see how this was going to be, and Coach Moo Moo tried to tell me years before how good he was. We've had Trevor Lacey, Josh Langford, John Petty, and on that van ride home, I knew we had Caleb Holt up next.
The last three years have been a blur. Caleb's rise continued through middle school, despite initial restrictions on playing varsity as an 8th grader; he overcame that and came in hot dominating games like a senior at times. Two state championships later, Gatorade Player of the Year, Mr. Basketball, and two USA gold medals later, the thing that makes him one of the most special kids to come from Alabama is his character.
This summer Caleb and his family decided to take his talents to Georgia for his junior year of high school. This moment is bittersweet. For the last few years, he has made all of us proud by winning in the city, winning in the state, and winning internationally. He made all of us feel a part of something that most won't get to experience in a lifetime. The younger kids could touch him, they could talk to him, he was Caleb Holt, but a Lebron-type figure to all the kids that look up to him. I'm sure coaches feel a sigh of relief, especially all of the coaches who knew the fate of having a chance to win a state championship laid in the hands of one of the most accomplished 16-year-olds in the country; and whether or not he would stay or leave.
I think I can speak for every coach, parent, and kid when I say one thing we all will miss is how passionately he played every second of every game. Whether you played with him or against him, if you love the game, you love the fact that he never cheated it and always had and still has the utmost respect for the game, simply by the way he pursues it daily. This isn't a goodbye guys, it’s a see you later, thanks for making your mark in Alabama on the court and in our hearts.
Georgia, welcome your new Mr. Basketball, Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year, 2x USA Gold Medalist, 2x 6A Alabama State Champion, 2x 6A State Tournament MVP, technically 1x because in goat-like fashion he gave the last MVP to his point guard and longtime teammate Fred Derrick "Fred Fred" saying without him, they wouldn't have won. We present to you…. Alabama's own, Caleb Holt.
