When Adam Holman was growing up in the late 1940s and the early and mid-1950s in rural southeastern Missouri, opportunities for young African Americans in a lot of areas, including athletics, were difficult to come by.

Holman felt the scourge of prejudice and segregation. In fact, as a result of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in 1954 that ended the policy of separate, but equal schools in Brown vs. Topeka (Kan.) Board of Education, he was placed at the forefront of history in his community as one of seven black students be a part of integration at Charleston High School near his home in Wyatt, Mo.

At least in part because of his experiences as a high school student in such trying times in our nation’s history, and moving to Ashtabula after his graduation from Lincoln University, Holman gradually gravitated into a career as an educator himself. Even before he began teaching in the Ashtabula Area City Schools in 1967, he was working as an official for youth basketball.

Once he got into teaching at West Junior High and Ashtabula High School, Holman really dove into helping children. He spent most of his career coaching junior high boys basketball, but even served a brief stint as girls varsity basketball coach and an assistant at the high school with freshman and junior varsity boys. Even after his retirement from teaching in 2002, he spent time as a volunteer for the Lakeside High School boys program.

Even more important, though, was the nearly two decades he spent as Ashtabula High School athletic director. He made sure that not only students from Ashtabula High School and adults who used it for city recreation basketball had access to the fine court at Ball Gymnasium, but that it was utilized by high school players from throughout the area as a site for many years for sectional basketball tournaments.

It also served as the home for the Star Beacon Senior Classic from its inception in the late 1970s until it moved to the facilities at the new Lakeside High School in 2007. Had Holman not been willing to make Ball Gymnasium available at no charge, there might never have been such an event.

Even now, at age 72, Holman keeps plugging away, trying to give guidance to Ashtabula’s young people. He still takes time for substitute teaching. He still can be found driving around town, delivering job applications for one person, giving a wave and a cheery greeting to nearly everyone he meets and even wagging a finger of warning and giving a stern look to someone he feels is heading for trouble.

“My life has been dedicated to helping young people have good lifetime experiences,” he said. “A lot of people have called me their father (even though he has two children of his own). I take that seriously.”

All those factors are reasons why Holman has been selected into the 2008 class of the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Hall of Fame. He will be inducted April 6.

“I feel great about going into the hall of fame,” he said. “I’ve read and discussed many of the people who have gone into it, and I’m proud to be a part of it with them.”

Those that know Holman say he indeed takes helping young people seriously. Even those he may have occasionally locked horns with have ultimately come to respect and understand his stances. They know he has had the best interests of area children at heart.

“Adam and I had occasion to work with each other a lot because we were both working in the same school system,” retired Harbor coach and athletic director Ed Armstrong, who will join him in the ACBF Hall of Fame this year, said. “At the same time, we realized that we were trying to do what was best for the kids at our own schools.

“I think Adam and I had a good working relationship over the years. I know he was dedicated to working with kids. I think any of us who have been in athletics understand that. He did a great job for kids.”

Don Cannell had the chance to work with Holman in his capacity as athletic director at St. John. He developed an abiding respect for Holman, too.

“Adam has always been first class,” he said. “He’s just a great person. We always got along very well.