EPCHS Alum In The Spotlight: Tremane Holt, Class Of 2014

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — With the Evergreen Park Mustangs football team pumped for the first round of the IHSA Class 4A playoffs on Friday, let’s learn more about a star player from another great team in EPCHS football history.

Tremane Holt anchored the Mustangs’ defense in the 2012 and 2013 seasons, a pair of years that saw the team amass a 19-5 overall record. Holt remembers vividly the 2013 season in which Evergreen Park went 9-0 in the regular season, only to lose a heartbreaker in the playoffs to Chicago-Phillips, a team that won the state championship the next season.

“Our biggest playoff rivalry was with Richmond-Burton, though,” Holt said during a recent visit to EPCHS. “We’d meet them in either the first or second round of the playoffs every year.”

Holt transferred to EPCHS from Tinley Park High School at the end of his sophomore year. He starred at defensive tackle, and picked up some playing time on offense as an occasional fullback and tight end.

“We did some amazing things,” Holt said. “I’m just so happy to see what the school has done since I left, and where the school is now. It’s amazing.”

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Many of Holt’s greatest motivators are still teaching at EPCHS. It made his day to run into the likes of Ray Mankowski, David Pierce, Anna Papasideris and Mike Gallagher during a tour of the school.

“The teachers, and security guards, were the best,” he said. “I know Ms. (Diana) Granata has retired, and then there’s Scott Pasek, who is another gem. I’ve always managed to keep in touch with many of my teachers.”

Holt said Mankowski was “a guy that motivated me, for sure.”

“He’s a great coach,” said Holt, who also ran track and field and qualified for the section in wrestling.

Holt was also involved in many clubs, with his experiences in the Science Club among the most memorable.

“I loved the trips we’d take, the Thursday night football family dinners, the unity of all the sports teams, and the excitement of all the days when we had all the students in the auditorium.”

“I never had a bad time here,” Holt added.

Holt has been doing HVAC work on the side for a few years now, and on Monday will start six months of training at the Chicago Center for Arts and Technology.

“I’ll be learning more advanced stuff like manufacturing, fixing machines and furnaces,” he said. “After football, I wasn’t sure what to do, so to find HVAC was a relief.”

After training, Holt plans to work for a company for a few years and then work independently.