Bromell/Holmes: Childhood Friends, Baylor Bears, Team USA Gold Medal Hopefuls

The stages keep getting bigger for childhood friends Trayvon Bromell and TJ Holmes. The pair have been racing each other since they were in grade school. They joined the same youth track club and grew up together. They both attended high school in south Saint Petersburg and they both landed on the prestigious Baylor track team for their first year of collegiate track. They are college roommates and will even be rooming together for the World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon this week. 

 

"Neither of us ever miss a practice," Holmes said.

 

How could they? If one of them isn't feeling up to it, the other one is lacing up his spikes getting ready to head out. They couldn't even stay in and play Madden. They are each other's opponent. Holmes and Bromell are as ubiquitous at the top of the leader boards as they are with each other. It's been that way for a long time. It will likely be that way, at least for the next few years. 

 

It's impossible to diminish what they've already accomplished and daunting to ponder the future ahead of them. Both won state titles in their senior years in high school, Bromell in the 100m with Gibbs and Holmes in the 300m hurdles with Lakewood. As freshmen for Baylor at the NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Championships, Bromell won the 100m in 9.97 and Holmes placed fourth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 50.07 and those weren't even their best times of the season. Bromell's wind-aided 9.77 from the Big 12 Championships is the top collegiate mark in the nation. Holmes' 49.90 from the Western Preliminaries of the NCAA Championships stands as the seventh-best collegiate mark in the country. 

 

While Bromell emerged as a sprinter as early as seven, it took Holmes a little longer to settle into the events he was best at. 

 

"I remember it was like pulling teeth to try and get Trayvon (Bromell) to run a 400 (meter)," coach of Lightning Bolt Track Club Garlynn Boyd said. "But I remember him winning the 100m in his first ever track meet when he was seven years old and I knew there was something special there."

 

Holmes actually came on with Boyd and Lightning Bolt Track Club as early as four and was the sprinter until Bromell came along and supplanted him. 

 

"I lost a foot race on the street to him (Bromell), after that, he joined up with the club team," Holmes said. 

 

As elementary school kids, Bromell and Holmes won national AAU titles in both the relays and individual events. Boyd was always a part of their track careers, even into high school. She coached at Gibbs and even sent a 4x100m relay to to top of the podium when she coached track for Osceola High School in Pinellas County. Lightning Bolt Track Club practices at Gibbs High.

 

"They had range, even as small kids," Boyd said.

 

As the years went by, Bromell zeroed in on the 100m and 200m while Holmes stretched out to greater distances, trying the 400m and the 800m. Then one day in his junior year of high school, Holmes got the idea that he wanted to be a hurdler.

 

"I think we kind of blew him off at first," Boyd said. "We didn't realize he was dead serious."

 

The next year, Holmes won the 300m hurdles and placed second in the 110m hurdles at states. If Bromell is a born sprinter, Holmes is a made hurdler.

 

"TJ (Holmes) is self-taught," Boyd said. "What you see in the hurdles, that's all him. He proved us wrong and boy did he make us eat crow."

 

When scouts from Baylor came to Gibbs to talk to Bromell, Boyd kept telling them not to sleep on Holmes, that he could score a lot of points for a collegiate track team. 

 

"Four meets into the season, my phone was blowing up," Boyd said. "They were asking about the same kid three weeks ago, they said they weren't interested in."

 

Holmes ran a 50.60 at the New Balance Nationals, fresh out of high school. It was just the second time he'd ever run the event. Now, Holmes is receiving valuable coaching at Baylor and his times are dropping. What's more, he's learning technique that raises the ceiling even higher for the collegiate rising sophomore. Holmes mentioned that he's since learned to hurdle with either lead foot. Typically, Holmes would chop steps to get to his left leg to kick it over. Now he's able to kick it over with whichever leg is ready. It even boils down to which hurdle Holmes switches leads legs on. 

 

"At first it was the seventh hurdle, then the eighth, then I switched on the ninth hurdle at the Junior National qualifying tournament and that seems like the best one to make the switch on," Holmes said. 

 

It wasn't all peaches and cream for Bromell, either. Coming into high school, Bromell broke both of his knees and people lined up to say it was over for him. 

 

"That was a low period in Trayvon's life," Boyd said. "But I always told him that God had a plan for him and his mom Sheri (Saunders) took him through all the appointments and rehab and look at him now."

 

Now the pair have brought renown to Baylor and in just one year of competition.

 

"They brought absolute swagger to the program," Boyd said. "Baylor was known as, '400 Meter U' before they got there."

 

Bromell and Holmes have certainly brought some event diversity to Baylor and once Holmes gets all the way back from a hamstring injury, he will start doing the 110m hurdles again. However, they bring more than points to the Baylor team.

 

"We bring some excitement at the meets," Holmes said. "Trayvon and I are loud and playful all the time, we're always comparing Florida and Texas, we make the team more fun."

 

Holmes might take the lead when it's about being jovial on the track. Bromell gets very honed-in, especially when it nears race time.

 

"I kind of stay to myself, get in my own zone," Bromell said. 

 

Bromell is also a film junkie. He studies film of himself, always looking for something to improve on.

 

"If I can find something wrong, it means I can get better, means I can go faster," Bromell said.

 

Their camaraderie is infectious. Bromell and Holmes have a web-based question and answer show hosted by Ustream, with over 841 views. The name of the broadcast is TnT Nation (Trayvon and TJ) . Bromell has even been unofficially credited with bringing short shorts back into style.

 

"Trayvon started wearing the short shorts as opposed to the tights because he said it was more comfortable," Boyd said. "Now you're starting to see a trend, kids wearing the short shorts."

 

So as Holmes and Bromell lace up and take on the best the world has to offer this week. They can look at each other and see both where they came from and where they're headed.