Holland Reynolds has been interviewed dozens of times the last 14 months about her
inspirational crawl across the finish line to secure the 2010 California State Division V cross-country championship.
Holland Reynolds will run at
Colgate next fall.
Photo courtesy of Robin Hauser Reynolds
The New York Times, CBS, CNN, Good Morning America and ESPN's Outside the Lines all did major features, to name but a few, and recently a Japanese news station from Nippon traveled to San Francisco to do the story and actually pulled off a reenactment.
All of it has been somewhat overwhelming.
But now this.
The Super Bowl.
If the New York Giants finish off their improbable late-season run with a win in Super Bowl XLVI, they'll have the
University (San Francisco, Calif.) senior and her team partially to thank.
According to a story in the
New York Post, coach Tom Coughlin recently showed the team an ESPN video of Reynolds crawling over the finish line to finish off the Red Devils' then record eighth state title.
Reynolds, then a junior, was among the leaders but collapsed several yards from the line due to a combination of dehydration and hypothermia. She was inspired to finish for
University coach Jim Tracy, who is stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease.
Coughlin, known for his inspiration quotes and stories from such historical figures as Patton, Churchill, John Wooden and Muhammad Ali, decided to use Reynolds' crawl as an example of how to finish the season.
Reynolds said Friday she was floored by the news of Coughlin's tactics, even though she's almost grown accustomed to the giving interviews about that November day.
Holland Reynolds helped University
to its third straight and ninth
state title in November.
Photo courtesy of Robin Hauser Reynolds
"Just crazy," she said. "I never thought athletes in professional sport, who spend their whole lives competing, would ever look to a high schooler for inspiration.
"It's strange, but at the same time definitely the coolest thing I've heard about."
Not all of it was cool to some of her friends. The Post story came out the week before New York's NFC title game with the 49ers.
"My friends teased me and told me it was my fault the 49ers lost," said Reynolds, herself a 49ers fan. "One of my best friends said he hated me because he thought I gave Tom Coughlin just the right ammunition."
Part of how the Giants related to Reynolds, punter Steve Weatherford told the Post, was that she didn't take help from a race official that day. Had an official even touched her, she would have been disqualified.
"It's a pretty cool video," Weatherford said. "For us, we don't want or need anybody to help us. We're self-sufficient within this locker room. And everybody's hungry and we all have the effort and the want-to finish strong."
Reynolds, who placed sixth in November to help University to a ninth state crown, has another tie with New York. She'll run at Colgate next fall.
Who will she be rooting for Sunday?
"The Giants," she said without hesitation.
University has set up a special trust in Jim Tracy's name. Those wishing to contribute, please mail checks to: The Jim Tracy Special Needs Trust, c/o SF University High School, 3065 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94115.
