In an instant, Holmes went from high school star athlete to national curiosity.

"It was," his father said, "kind of a nightmare to see that happen."

Holmes, a wide receiver for the Soul, was a three-sport senior star in 1999 for East Central High in San Antonio. On Jan. 15 of that year, during a basketball game against South San Antonio High, Tony Limon hit Holmes with an elbow to the face without warning. The frightening incident was so vicious it resulted in a 5-year prison term for the attacker. Dwayne Holmes, Brent's father, said he immediately thought of Kermit Washington's infamous sucker punch that almost killed Rudy Tomjanovich in a 1977 NBA game.

"I've seen [Limon] since then," Dwayne Holmes said. "I told him that I forgive him as a person. But I do not forgive what he did."

The incident shocked the nation and could have destroyed Brent Holmes' life. Instead, he leaned on the strength of his family and today is a key and somewhat unlikely member of the Soul franchise that will play for its first ArenaBowl championship on Sunday.

"My face was on CNN. HBO Inside Sports did something and Oprah Winfrey wanted to do a show," Brent Holmes said. "I'm 17 years old at the time. I wasn't really understanding why they wanted to do a show [on me], I just got my face cracked. I just had to grow up really fast."

Holmes, a local hero for his achievements in football, basketball and track, became a celebrity for a much more dubious reason. He had to duck into restaurants through the back door. Coming home from school, "you'd see people in their driveways shooting basketball," he said. "In my driveway, there were big satellite trucks."

Holmes sustained numerous injuries. There were broken bones and cosmetic surgeries. One bone was shoved so deep into his skull, his father said, that it came within centimeters of piercing his brain and causing death.

"I had reconstructive surgery and I was still having trouble breathing because my septum was broken," Holmes said. "My mom and dad had to check on me throughout the night. I had reconstructive surgery 2 weeks later . . . because the upper lip had been sliced by the sharp elbow. When he hit me, I was knocked out and then I fell facefirst."

Amazingly, he returned in time to compete in the state playoffs, but the incident scared off football recruiters.

"The feeling was that if he can't take a hit on the basketball court, how can he take a hit on the football field," his father said.

Brent attended Texas A & M-Kingsville, a Division II program that produced former NFL players John Randle, Jermane Mayberry and Heath Sherman, along with current Soul teammate Eddie Moten.

Moten, in fact, is a big reason Holmes signed with the Soul on May 19.

This has been an unusual season for Holmes, 27. He started with Georgia, where he had 156 yards receiving and three touchdowns in the opener. He was waived by the Force 3 days later as part of a roster shakeup. (Rumors that he clashed with a coach are unfounded.) He was picked up by Tampa Bay, but released after four games when some Tampa receivers returned from injury. Then, Grand Rapids signed Holmes to its practice squad. He might still be there except that Soul wide receiver Kenny Henderson broke his collarbone in Week 11. That's when Moten called his former college teammate and told him there might be a spot in Philadelphia.

"We brought him in and was unsure what we were going to get," Soul coach Bret Munsey said. "But he's been a helluva role player and made plays for us in critical situations."

Similar to the way Matt D'Orazio stabilized the quarterback position, Holmes has done the same for the wide receivers. Since joining the team in Week 12, Holmes' 45 catches are second only to Chris Jackson's 57.

"He's been a godsend, really," Soul president Ron Jaworski said of Holmes, who is 5-11, 175. "He's not the biggest guy, he looks somewhat frail. Kind of the word I got [before signing him] was that he wasn't a real tough guy. Well, that certainly was a myth. I don't think anyone has made tougher catches, going up in the air, hitting the wall, taking shots and holding onto the ball. He has not dropped a ball since he's been here."

Dwayne and Rene Holmes raised three children. Brent and Demetria have earned their college degrees and Whitney will get hers next spring.

When he's not bouncing off walls or running pass routes over the middle, Brent Holmes teaches anatomy at East Central, his alma mater.

There was a point during this nomadic season when he questioned whether he wanted to continue pursuing football. Holmes would grade papers in the morning and work out in the hot Texas sun in the afternoon. He knew he had the talent, but the business end of it was beginning to wear him down. Life can do that sometimes. As he had done so often, he looked to his parents.

"Sometimes you need someone to give you that extra push, someone to say, 'You can do it,' " Rene would tell him. "Talent will take you a long way, but you must be ready when called upon. You never know what will come."

Said Jaworski: "He's been a perfect character guy for our football team. I don't know where we'd be without him." *