Rev. Lamar Sandoval remembers the summer day nearly half a century ago well. He and his friend and teammate, Anthony Pittman, were in between their junior and senior years at Cedar Shoals High School and were doing work for their baseball coach, James Holston.
While driving, they were hit by another car in a horrific accident that injured them and killed the driver of the other vehicle. As Rev. Sandoval recalls, it was Coach Holston who stayed by both of their sides in the hospital until their parents arrived. It was one of many acts of compassion that Rev. Sandoval remembers from his coach, teacher, and mentor. When he was unable to afford his varsity letterman’s jacket, Coach Holston purchased it for him.
“He was more than just a coach or a teacher; he was that connection to help you in life and show you with his actions how to be a productive member of society,” said Rev. Sandoval recently. “He was part of my village and a part of a whole lot of others.”
Rev. Sandoval will proudly be in attendance on Wednesday, April 1, for the official dedication of James Holston Field at Cedar Shoals prior to the Jaguars’ home game against Greene County. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and is open to the public. The Clarke County Board of Education approved the renaming of the field in 2025 after Rev. Sandoval and Mr. Pittman led the public effort for more than a year with comments at board meetings about the late Coach Holston’s impact and legacy.
Born and raised in Griffin, James Lewis Holston (1935-2017) spent 34 years in Clarke County high schools as a teacher and coach. He worked at Cedar Shoals from the school's opening in 1972 until his retirement in 1994, serving as the school's first baseball coach from the program's inaugural season in 1973 through 1983. He was also a longtime member of the Science Department faculty at Cedar, where he primarily taught biology and physical science.
Holston was a high school honor graduate and four-year football letterman at Fort Valley State University. He initially planned to pursue a career as a medical doctor, but changed course and entered the teaching and coaching profession. He began his coaching career in 1960 at Athens High and Industrial School, where he was offensive coordinator of the Yellow Jacket football team and continued in that post through the school’s renaming to Burney-Harris High School. In 1970, following the full integration of Clarke County schools, he moved over to Clarke Central High School and then was among the faculty members assigned by the district to Cedar Shoals when the school opened in the fall of 1972.
Rev. Sandoval was a bat boy for the Cedar baseball team as an eighth-grader at Hilsman Middle School when his older brother, Johnny, played for the Jaguars, and he himself played on the varsity team in 1977 and 1978. He also had Coach Holston for science all four years of high school. Like countless others who played for and were taught by Coach Holston, he remembers him as someone who did everything with passion and the best interests of his players and students in mind.
“In the classroom, he always had a great way of boiling something down to where you could grasp it and would meet you along the way,” Rev. Sandoval said. “On the field, no matter whether you were winning or losing, he always kept a positive attitude that would make us go out there and play hard for him. I never saw him denigrate anybody. He was always there to lift up your spirits. He was a great man and an unbelievable mentor for me on and off the field.”
While it wasn’t necessarily his choice to move over to Cedar Shoals, Holston fell in love with the new school community and took great pride in developing a rich and successful academic and athletic tradition there. In an April 1983 interview with The Athens Observer newspaper, he reflected on his time at the school to that point.
“When this school was built, it was new (and had to) establish itself academically, athletically, and socially. I’m not saying that you didn’t have the minds and the youngsters, which is what this whole thing is all about, having the youngsters develop to their highest potential. And coming here, I felt, would be a tremendous task. I knew a lot of work would be involved, and I accepted that.
“I don’t regret a moment of being here because it gave me a chance to grow up with a tradition. Even though I’m a mature man, you still grow in all facets of life. …In this particular school, I’ve seen (students and student athletes) grow and develop a winning tradition. That’s the most beautiful award that a man can get. …It’s been a very enjoyable situation for me, being at Cedar Shoals, and working with individuals here has not been like any other place.”
Holston was inducted into the Athens Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005 and was an inaugural member of the Cedar Shoals Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017. He is survived by his wife, retired Clarke County educator Bettye Henderson Holston, their two sons, Lewis and Bernard, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The family will be in attendance for the April 1 dedication ceremony, an event brought to fruition by former players and students whom he helped shape.
“It’s a great honor to be a part of this, and I’m just so glad his wife and sons will be able to see it,” Rev. Sandoval said. “I always tell them I’ll always be grateful to them for allowing her husband, their father, to be such a major part of my life and for teaching me how to, as he would often say, ‘deal with life on life’s terms.’
“I think this is instrumental for Cedar Shoals and today’s players. They were not born when he was around teaching and coaching here, but I hope seeing his name on the field would give them an inquisitive mind and the chance to go research what kind of honorable man Coach Holston was.
“In order to know where you’re headed, you need to know where you came from.”
About the James Holston Field Dedication Ceremony:
The dedication ceremony for Holston Field on April 1 will begin at 5 p.m. on the field and is free and open to the public. It will be followed by Cedar Shoals’ game against Greene County at 6 p.m. Tickets for the game are $5 and can be purchased at the gate or online through the GoFan app. Cedar Shoals is a cashless facility for athletic events.