Former NFL running back Tony Collins speaks to students at Holley Elementary School. Provided photoHaving a former Super Bowl running back right in their gymnasium on the eve of Super Bowl weekend is an experience Holley students won’t soon forget. Football player Tony Collins picked the perfect time to visit Holley Elementary School where he talked to students about his struggles to make the right decisions off the field and how positive thinking turned his life around.
Collins spent nine seasons in the NFL with the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins. His successful career was highlighted by a Pro Bowl selection in 1983, a single-game rushing record of 212 yards for the Patriots, and a trip to Super Bowl XX.
Born in Sanford, Florida, Collins grew up in Penn Yan. “At age nine, I knew I would play in the NFL,” he said. “Whatever you want to be – it all starts right here in your mind.” Collins told students to “speak their future into the present” and that their words have a lot of power. His life took a wrong turn when, according to Collins, he stopped listening to his father’s advice to surround himself with successful people. “You want to hang around people with the same goals and ambitions as you. I didn’t do that when I got to the NFL.”
Students had plenty of time to ask questions and then see Collins a second time during the Jump Rope for Heart event the next day. The visit was funded exclusively with money students earned by selling coupon books. For the past three years students have sold the books to raise money for the school improvement fund and part of those funds have been used to bring in a guest speaker to kick off the Jump Rope for Heart event. This is Holley’s 27th year participating in the Jump Rope for Heart during which time the school community has raised over $220,000 for American Heart Association programs and research.
