After not starting in 2024, Garrett Holman anchors SU’s backline as sophomore
After just six appearances as a freshman, Garrett Holman has played nearly every minute as a sophomore member of Syracuse’s backline. Jonathan Theodore | Contributing Photographer
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The summer before his senior year, Garrett Holman had every Atlantic Coast Conference offer a high school soccer player could want. Virginia. Cal. Stanford. The list goes on.
But when the center back from Hamburg, New Jersey, spoke with Syracuse’s staff, they had a vision. Head coach Ian McIntyre said that if Holman played for the Orange, he’d be one of the best center backs in the ACC by his sophomore year.
“When we recruited Garrett, we knew that there was a ton of potential there,” McIntyre said. “We thought he’s a Syracuse center back, with that athleticism and technique, someone who glides around the field.”
Holman took his word. Now a sophomore, he’s a staple of McIntyre’s lineup.
After making just six appearances as a freshman, Holman has played nearly every minute of every match this season. He and fellow center back Tim Brdaric have helped anchor a Syracuse backline that’s held opponents to 0.79 non-penalty goals a game. Holman’s helped SU post seven clean sheets, including a stretch of four straight, and he’s won 10 duels per game, per Sofascore. He even scored his first collegiate goal in SU’s 2-0 win over Cal on Sept. 27.
“He’s embracing this opportunity and continues to get better and better,” McIntyre said of Holman. “His ceiling is so high and he’s just scratching the surface.”
McIntyre’s definition of a “Syracuse center back” is based on a storied lineage. United States Men’s National Team star Miles Robinson and Canada National Team staple Kamal Miller headline the list of center backs that McIntyre developed before Holman.
Holman is the last person to compare himself to SU’s greats, but his coaches know he can become one of the next names on that list.
“Ceilings are man made,” said Edwin Escobar, Holman’s head coach at Phillips Academy Andover (Massachusetts). “In my opinion, there’s no ceiling for this kid, only the one that he creates for himself. I think that we’re seeing the beginning of a remarkable career that can only improve.”
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That career began at the age of 3, when Holman’s mom, Jeannie, saw an advertisement for a local recreational soccer team. She asked Holman if he wanted to participate, and he agreed.
He always had a competitive drive, his father, Gary, said, whether it was in youth sports tournaments or NBA 2K matchups on the Xbox. So, Holman tried every sport he could. Baseball. Basketball. Lacrosse. Golf. Karate. Only soccer stuck.
As a child, Holman mostly played striker. It wasn’t until he was 10 or 11 that a coach he’d been training with, Darrell Etienne, suggested he move to center back. Still, Etienne trained Holman to be dominant on the ball and develop his technique like a midfielder or attacker.
Playing for TSF Academy, he began to make a name for himself throughout middle school. By eighth grade, he was being recruited by several prep schools with strong soccer programs, including Escobar’s Andover squad.
Escobar said, when he was building his program, the first thing he needed was strong ninth graders. Holman was the first building block for an Andover squad that eventually became a top-5 private school team in the country, per Escobar. Starting on Andover’s backline as a freshman, Holman made his impact felt instantly.
“He was a freshman, obviously, but he wasn’t scared at all to make strong tackles and go into those 50-50s,” said Alex Torrens, who played alongside Holman at Andover. “Going into a duel with Garrett was not fun. He was just a fearless, strong, aggressive player.”
Holman was also “fantastic” on the ball, former Andover teammate Zane Matraji said. Ellis Denby, another Andover teammate, recalled Holman’s ability to make recoveries and crunching tackles to cut down attackers. Torrens remembers Holman easily dribbling past opponents’ presses before spraying passes in all directions. Those plays made him think: “This kid is going to go somewhere.”
That spine of Tim, Garrett and Tomas (Hut) has been outstanding for us. Garrett really grew in the spring, he’s really committed, came back early in the summer, and has really put in the work to physically developIan McIntyre, Syracuse men’s soccer head coach
Matraji said he had the same realization when he saw Holman’s evening routine after each school day. At the end of his freshman year, Holman agreed to an academy contract with Major League Soccer club New England Revolution. He’d practice in Andover, leave campus, take an hour-long Uber ride to Boston, practice for an hour-and-a-half with the Revolution and take another hour-long Uber back.
“He did that for about three years,” Gary said. “That’s when I realized that he was serious about his time commitment and how he was doing things.”
His efforts didn’t go unnoticed. Holman stacked up offers from several premier ACC programs. But McIntyre — who played sweeper himself before developing star defenders at SU — led him to Syracuse.
“Whatever Coach Mac could do to help him grow and develop as a player in that position, he wanted to absorb that,” Jeannie said.
“When someone who knows how to win games puts that kind of faith and trust in you and sees the (skills) you have, it feels very good,” Holman said of McIntyre’s support. “I think he’s a perfect coach for me.”
McIntyre isn’t one to shy away from plugging freshmen into the mix immediately, but Holman didn’t see much playing time in his first year with Syracuse.
In a crowded defensive room with three graduate students — Sam Layton, Andre Culter-DeJesus and Ben Rosenblatt — there wasn’t much playing time to go around. Holman tallied just 114 minutes across six games and played fewer than 15 in four of those appearances.
Garrett Holman heads a ball away in Syracuse 1-0 win over Boston College Oct. 5. Holman has emerged as a standout defender for the Orange alongside center back partner Tim Brdaric, helping the Orange record seven clean sheets this season. Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer
After his freshman campaign, Holman had his end-of-year meeting with SU’s coaching staff. It demanded he be more aggressive and opportunistic. The staff knew it’d give him a chance to play soon, but it was Holman’s responsibility to make the most of it.
“I would show up to practice sometimes, and I would be lackadaisical because l knew I wasn’t going to play, and I would get lazy,” Holman said. “Fixing those things really helped me in the spring.”
As a sophomore, Holman’s done just that. He spent the spring and summer bulking up in the weight room. The Orange added Brdaric from Germany, but gave Holman his shot as Brdaric’s partner. They haven’t needed to take either off the field.
Holman has used his physicality to torment attackers. He said one of his biggest points of emphasis over the offseason was improving his aerial duels, which he’s now winning at a 60% clip, according to Sofascore. Aside from an ill-advised pass in SU’s 1-0 loss to Duquesne on Sept. 5, which Holman called his biggest moment of adversity since coming to Syracuse, he’s been rock solid at the back.
“That spine of Tim, Garrett and Tomas (Hut) has been outstanding for us,” McIntyre said. “Garrett really grew in the spring, he’s really committed, came back early in the summer, and has really put in the work to physically develop.”
He credits most of his growth to his offseason work. Now, Holman’s just trying to stay consistent. Superstition often helps, he added. He tries to wear the same cleats and shin guards every match. He takes a cold shower before every game. It’s all part of remaining steady while he’s playing almost every second of every match.
And if he can continue to find that consistency, McIntyre’s initial vision may just come to fruition.
“He’s been terrific, and I still think there’s still a lot more there,” McIntyre said.
