Adrian Holloway, 34-year-old Selma native, has been the head baseball coach at Selma University for four years and recently took on the role of athletic director, but he wasn’t always a baseball coach.

Holloway left Selma to pursue a baseball career. He earned a scholarship and played at Alabama State University, and that led him to the minor leagues.

“After playing some minor league baseball, I decided to go back to school to finish my degree. When I finished my degree, I went into the workforce and I worked in the Pelham/Hoover area for about a year,” he said. “My mom passed away during that time, so I took some time off work and prayed and just asked God to lead me where he wanted me to be in life, and he led me back to Selma.”

While working at Warren Manor as a social worker, he was also coaching a youth baseball team for the city of Selma’s recreation department. That’s when it hit him.

“I just realized that I still loved baseball,” he said. I had a passion for it. I realized I was going to work every day, and I didn’t feel the same way as I felt on the baseball field coaching.”

And he has been coaching ever since. Holloway decided to turn his love for coaching into a career, so he applied for jobs all over the United States. He said he interviewed for jobs in California and even Michigan, but it was one in Selma that came calling.

“I wanted to be an assistant to kind of get my foot in the door, but God saw fit for it and Selma University offered me a head coach job,” he said. “It was like a blessing. God works in mysterious ways and everything is always in his time, and our plans are not always the plan.”

Getting the opportunity to be a head coach at the collegiate level is something Holloway said he doesn’t take lightly.

“Not many guys get that privilege, not even high school coaches get to coach in their home town. This is a business where guys are constantly moving just to find work,” he said. “It’s kind of like living my dream.”

Holloway continues to coach youth teams, serves on the board for All In Sports Outreach and is a member of his dad’s church in Jones, New Salem Baptist Church. He has a 7-year-old daughter named Kamiya Adreon Fulford. Holloway said he has a passion for helping young people.

“A lot of kids here are in families that have never been to college,” he said. “If I can influence them to go to college and break that to start a new trend … then that’s what I’m all about.”