Liberty Alum Dallas Holmes
- © Keystone Sports Extra
- Sep 24
- 9 min read
Updated: Sep 29
Vermillion, SD - September 24, 2025: Dallas Holmes is a 2020 Bethlehem Liberty High School graduate who played multiple sports but wasn’t a starter on the football team until the middle of his junior season when he stepped in at quarterback. He wasn’t a highly recruited student-athlete and only received a few looks from smaller colleges. He is currently setting trails at the University of South Dakota playing football and pursuing his Masters Degree. Keystone Sports Extra recently watched Dallas is action and connected with him afterward to talk about his journey.
As Dallas faced various obstacles in his football career, from the virus that hit in 2020 to a team that reneged on a verbal commitment, an inspiring Koby Bryant quote kept running through his head: “The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.” Dallas is a Kobe Bryant fan and said: “One thing I am is competitive.” “We were raised in our house to be that way and never give up.” That competitiveness and attitude has led Dallas to where he is at today.
Dallas began playing football at age 4. “Football was always on our TV at home and my dad now coaches, so it seemed like an obvious choice for me, to play the sport,” said Dallas. Dallas’ parents always encouraged him and his siblings to play other sports and he did, there was baseball, track & field, wrestling, and even basketball, which Dallas played throughout his high school days, but it was football that he really loved and wanted to play at the next level.
While Dallas was in high school, he didn’t break any records or make any all-conference teams in the always tough Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. It sometimes takes athletes a little time to mature and gain that confidence to know they can compete at the next level. Dallas persevered through that period and made the right choices.
Upon graduation in 2020, Dallas was determined to play Division I college football. The virus disrupted all sports on all levels and certainly affected Dallas’ plan. There was a lot of uncertainty among athletes, teams, their schedules, and recruiting. “I made the decision to enroll in post-graduate prep classes at Wyoming Seminary where I thought I would boost my resume for college while at the same time hone my football skills, all in an attempt to be a better prospect,” said Dallas. “But that didn’t really work out either because of the COVID mess and only playing two games at Sem.”
That spring before finishing at Wyoming Seminary, he verbally committed to the University of Maine and was about to sign his National Letter of Intent to play football there for the 2021-2022 season. “I was notified by the coach after signing day that they gave the roster spot to someone else,” said Dallas. “After hearing about Maine, honestly, I was pretty distraught and lost.” “I wasn’t sure what my career was going to look like because most schools’ spots were already taken up especially with COVID, so I really just was lost in a sense.”
After the year at Wyoming Seminary was completed and after the University of Maine fell through, Dallas contacted the coaches at the University of Pittsburgh in hopes of having a chance at a walk-on position. He was told there would be tryouts so he enrolled at Pitt for the 2021-2022 school year but the football team never held the tryouts. Enrolled academically for the year, Dallas took classes, played on the college’s club football team, and hit the weights, preparing for his next step.
“It would have been very easy to give up and move on after those setbacks but that’s not me,” he said. Instead, he kept working out and began going to football camps in order to show his skills and hopefully be seen by a program that needed his talents.
One such camp was at Kent State, “The Mega Camp,” where Dallas attended. “At the Kent State camp, Lafayette College was there and the coaches contacted me asking if I would attend their football camp, which I did,” said Dallas.
After performing well at the Lafayette camp, he was offered a scholarship from Lafayette to play football and in the fall of 2022, Dallas’ dream had finally come to fruition as he was going to be playing football back in his home area. “When Lafayette first let me know about the scholarship and the spot on the team, I just felt so relieved in that moment to have somewhere to play football again.” “From there, it was back to work and learning their offense and playing.”
Reflecting back on Lafayette, Dallas said: “Lafayette was great.” “I loved playing for Lafayette.” “The coaches there were great to play for, my family was able to make all the games, and I was familiar with the area.” “If I ever needed a break from college life, I drove 15 minutes home to relax and get grounded.” “I still keep in touch with my friends from the team and the coaches.”
Many of the college classes Dallas had taken at Pitt carried over to Lafayette so he was able to graduate in three years with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics & Economics, which is not an easy major for any student-athlete trying to balance academics and athletics. “I was a big procrastinator in high school, but in college, I learned my first semester at Pitt that you can’t do that and ever since I’ve been good,” said Dallas.
Dallas cares about his academics as much as his athletics. He’s intelligent, well spoken, and determined in his field of study. He was a High Honors student in high school and made the Dean’s List in college (3.85 GPA). He was selected as a scholar-athlete by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Lehigh Valley Chapter, in his senior year at Liberty. “My mother always told me to choose a major that I was actually going to use and that would benefit me in the future,” said Dallas.
On the field at Lafayette, Dallas was named to the 2024 All-Patriot League Second Team as a tight end. He finished at Lafayette with 22 catches for 302 yards and 6 touchdowns. “It felt good,” he said. “All the time and effort put in was paying off, but I still had one more year of athletic eligibility and needed to find a new home.” “Lafayette didn’t have a Master’s program for me to stay there…I would have loved to stay but I was once again faced with the challenge of finding that new team, a new home.” “Lafayette was very supportive of me in finding a new team, and in fact, Coach (Tyler) Noll, the tight ends coach, helped out a lot with talking to other teams.”
In December of 2024, Dallas put his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal. He wasn’t sure what to expect but after the valuable experience at Lafayette and being named to the All-Patriot League Team, several teams reached out. “It’s sort of like speed dating, you enter the portal and you’re trying to get to know the coaches, and vice versa.”
Just weeks after placing his name in the portal, Dallas and his mom were on a 4 AM flight west to the University of South Dakota for a campus visit, nicknamed the Yotes, or Coyotes. “There’s a lot of flat land, no hills, and a lot of corn, I had never been to the Midwest before that trip with my mom,” said Dallas.
He continued by saying: “My parents always gave their opinion or advice on decisions, but left the final choice up to me.” “My mom told me afterwards though that she knew I was going to pick the University of South Dakota over the other schools.” Then, two weeks after graduating from Lafayette, with his undergraduate degree in hand, Dallas, his mom, and his dad packed up the car with as much belongings they could fit, and he and his dad drove the 1300 miles from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Vermillion, South Dakota.
“I wanted to get out here as early as possible, get used to the area, work out, and most importantly, learn the playbook.” “I knew the Lafayette playbook like the back of my hand but here at USD, the offense is different, more of a pro-style offense compared to a RPO.” “Dakota utilizes multiple tight ends and calls are made in the huddle compared to being signaled in, so I am still learning it right now.” “It’s what I do in my spare time, study the playbook so I don’t mess up.” “And, no, I still have not seen a real coyote.” “But, the people out here are so friendly.”
Dallas said at first he was the new guy, the “freshman again” at USD and it was tough. “It’s isolating here in the Midwest but it’s very family orientated so I was able to call family and friends and get through the first few weeks.” He quickly acclimated to the team, developed good friends, and the coaches have been awesome. “I am very happy with my decision to attend USD, they won the Missouri Valley Conference last year, went to the FCS playoffs, and the coaches make it a family atmosphere, they really care about the student-athletes.”
In the classroom at USD, Dallas is pursuing a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Although he plans on taking his football skills to the next level after USD, and we shouldn’t doubt him, he realizes long-term that his academic career will set him and his family up for life. “I like the actuary, or risk assessment, field and can see myself pursuing that career at some point.” “I did a medicare/medicaid actuary internship this past summer for a Missouri-based company named Centene and it was interesting to me.”
On the field, in a beautiful dome which the “Yotes” play in, Dallas has started in all four games so far this season. At the time of this writing, he has made 5 catches for 44 yards and the team is 2-2. In watching him in action against Drake University on September 20th, his blocking helped the Yotes as a team rush for a whopping 282 yards in a 42-21 dominating win. In watching Dallas’ blocking skills, it was evident the defenders were getting frustrated trying to get off his block. Dallas said his main goal right now is helping his team to another championship season and whatever his role is in accomplishing that, he is going to do his best. He has some individual goals as well but the priority is the team, one game at a time.
At Liberty and Lafayette, Dallas was engaged in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and he helped with Special Olympics. He said: “I want to work hard but trust in God’s way, trust his plan, whatever happens is up to God.” “I love my family, God, and football.” Dallas mentioned Jarrod Spencer and his book Mind of the Athlete. “Mr. Spencer is from back home and involved in FCA.” “His book is a good read.”
Dallas was asked to expand on the question of how sports has made him a better person: “I believe athletics made me a better person because it taught me the valuable lesson of hard work.” “In sports, if I’m not playing well, I need to work harder, and make changes to start playing better.” “That’s the same thing with life.” “If I don’t like how my life is, I need to work harder and make changes in my life to make it better.”
There is certainly a pattern here with Dallas: patience, determination, and perseverance. Doing whatever it takes to accomplish the dream but trust what God has in store for you…and never giving up! Don’t wait around hoping for something to happen or someone to do it for you, go make it happen!
Kobe Bryant had another good quote: “There is power in understanding the journey of others to help create your own.” Bryant continued by saying: “Everyone has a different journey.” What is your journey going to be and how do you want to be remembered?
Our conversation with Dallas ended with a fun little chat about some of his favorite things and here is what he had to say: “My favorite college class so far was Operations Research, the class delved into solving complex systems, my favorite podcast right now is The Pivot with Ryan Clark and other guests, this podcast talks about the mental aspect of sports, but I also like my Uncle’s podcast A2A Academy, Lil Wayne is my favorite artist but I also like listening to soothing jazz before games, my favorite restaurant back in the Lehigh Valley is the Flaming Hot Halal Grill in Allentown, my favorite movie growing up was Space Jam but now it might be The Dark Knight, my favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys, and definitely WaWa over Sheetz…if South Dakota had a WaWa, it would be fire out here.”
