Holmes CC gets first bowl in 28 years

The Holmes Community College football team wanted the ability to make honey this season.

Well, kind of.

The acronym APIS is engraved above the facemasks on the top of the helmets Holmes players have worn this season.

For Holmes, the letters stand for: All Players In Sync.

Holmes coach Jeff Koonz, who holds a bachelor of science degree from SUNY-New Paltz and a master of science degree from Georgia Southern University, contrived the idea from … bees.

“There are 17,000 strands of bees,” Koonz said. “Only seven have the ability to make honey. That biological, Latin term is called apis. We took that because there are seven college divisions that can win a national championship. That’s the correlation. What makes those seven different? Well, it goes back to apis, teamwork and all players in sync.”

Holmes won’t be a national champion this season, but the Bulldogs did evolve into a rare breed.

For the first time in 28 years, Holmes will play in a bowl game, as announced Tuesday by the NJCAA.

Holmes (6-3), which is ranked No. 9 nationally, will travel to UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for the Graphic Edge Bowl at 3 p.m. on December 4 against Iowa Western (6-5).

Holmes is one of three Mississippi JUCOs to earn a bowl game, along with No. 5 Northwest (Heart of Texas Bowl against No. 4 Trinity Valley) and No. 3 East Mississippi (Mississippi Bowl against No. 13 Kilgore) being the other two. EMCC defeated Northwest for the MACJC championship Saturday.

“This is a huge thing for our players, coaches and the school,” Koonz said.

Holmes’ dynamic offense was a significant reason for its success this season. Receiver D.J. Montgomery (Madison Central) leads the nation in yards per catch (27.1) and has 29 receptions for 786 yards and eight touchdowns. Holmes is ranked second in the nation in rushing yards, averaging 316.4 yards per game.

“To be a top 10 in the country,” Koonz said, “this is just a sign of how far the program has come.”

In other words, it’s pretty sweet.