Despite growing up two states away in Georgia, John Holland had never been to Mississippi until he took his official visit to Starkville in March 2014.
The transfer second baseman from Chattahoochee Valley (Ala.) Community College knew during that initial trip that Mississippi State would be his new home.
“I think it was the family aspect here,” Holland said. “I met several of the guys on my visit and was getting phone numbers to text. I just felt like I’d made friends with kids before I’d actually even made the decision to come here. The coaches didn’t feed the whole recruiting spiel, it was more of a need instead of rah-rah stuff to make me feel good about myself.