Virginia football’s Mike Hollins returns to practice just four months after being shot in the back

Just four months after surviving a shooting that took the lives of three of his University of Virginia football teammates, running back Mike Hollins is back in practice for the Cavaliers.

Hollins was seen in spring practice as a full participant after being discharged from the hospital in November and spending time on a ventilator.

Spring practice is the first time the Cavaliers will be taking part in football activities since the shooting – after the school cancelled their final two games of the season and failed to make a bowl game. 

Head coach Tony Elliott praised Hollins for his dedication to the team and his resilience in the face of tragedy.

‘Just to watch how he’s attacked everything, could easily have made excuses, easily have overthought things and but he’s taking it upon himself to respond and show perseverance and be resilient,’ Elliott said. 

Virginia football running back Mike Hollins is back in practice after being shot in November

Hollins (right) was released from the hospital in November after spending time on a ventilator and recovering after being wounded in the mass shooting

‘I think a lot of it is for himself, but the majority of it is for his teammates. There was a time when we didn’t know if he’d ever have the chance to play to play football again,’ Elliot continued. 

‘I’m just grateful to be on the grass, grateful to have an opportunity to be here at the University of Virginia and lead this program, lead these young men, all the guys that decided to come back and pick up the pieces and turn this tragedy into a triumph.

‘Just so happy for Mike because we all know that as a football player that your time is going to come to an end. You definitely wouldn’t want it to come to an end in that fashion. So to see him to have another opportunity, just to go out on his own terms, makes it really special.’

Hollins and three of his teammates – Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis Jr. – were all shot after returning to Charlottesville after a field trip to Washington, DC. 

Chandler, Perry, and Davis were all killed as a result of the shooting. Another student, Marlee Morgan, was also shot in the incident, but survived her injuries.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a former UVA football player, has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder alongside other charges.

This combo of undated images provided by University of Virginia Athletics shows, from left, Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry. The three Virginia football players were killed in a shooting in Charlottesville, while returning from a class trip

The violence erupted near a parking garage just after 10:15pm on November 13 as a bus full of students returned to Charlottesville from a field trip to Washington, DC

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.,22 (pictured), is alleged to have killed three members of the football team. His father has said Jones Jr. was ‘paranoid’ and said people had been ‘picking on him’ weeks before his campus gun rampage

Hollins (above) said Jones looked ‘normal’ before going on to kill three of his teammates

Back in practice, Hollins’ roommate Perris Jones said the team has been inspired by Hollins has managed to work his way back onto the team. 

‘Just the way he’s carried himself throughout this tragedy and how he continues to carry himself it’s surreal,’ Perris Jones said. 

‘He is a strong man, and his fight every day encourages all of us to continue to fight and to do the best that we absolutely can because if he can do it, we can as well, so it’s definitely motivating.’

‘As I told the guys: “We’re not moving on, but we do have a responsibility to move forward,”‘ Elliott said. ‘We believe that the spirits and the legacies of the three men that we lost would want us to move forward. But there’s going to be some times where there’s going to be some emotional milestones that we’re going to have to get through.

‘But I believe from what I’ve seen so far, the guys have really taken hold to the appreciation and the gratitude that they have to be here at the University of Virginia to carry forward the legacy.’