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Photo by Shawn Bowles.
Briarwood defensive lineman Holden Patterson (59) looks to make the tackle during a game against Clay-Chalkville on Nov. 12 at Cougar Stadium in Birmingham.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Oak Mountain’s Emily Cox (3) passes the ball during a match between Oak Mountain and Hoover at Hoover High School on Oct. 6, 2020.
Two local student-athletes have received one of the highest scholarships in Alabama high school sports.
Emily Cox and Holden Patterson, graduates from Oak Mountain High School and Briarwood Christian School, respectively, have earned the famous Bryant-Jordan Award, a scholarship program that awards athletes in the state for their academic success and achievements in overcoming obstacles.
The award is divided into two categories: scholar-athlete and achievement. Patterson and Cox both won the achievement award.
“It was a big honor, especially being able to go [to the awards ceremony on April 11],” Patterson said. “There was pretty tough competition with people that were also competing for it.”
“It was really exciting and also such an honor,” Cox said. “I felt really honored to have received such a high award for everything that I’ve accomplished and overcome.”
In seventh grade, Cox was told she would never be able to play volleyball again, she said.
Cox has had two open heart surgeries in her lifetime, she said, one when she was little and the other at the end of her seventh-grade year.
“One of the other defects that I was born with progressed during my seventh-grade year,” Cox said. “At the end of my seventh-grade year, I had a second open heart surgery in May and was told the month before that I wouldn't be able to play volleyball because it would get my heart rate up.”
Patterson tore his shoulder playing football his junior year of high school but didn’t realize it until the season ended, he said.
“I played a whole entire season with it torn up and it just got even worse than what it was. At the end of the season, I ended up going to play lacrosse and figured out I couldn’t throw because my shoulder was so bad,” Patterson said.
Patterson discovered that 80% of his labrum was torn and had to have eight anchors put in his arm, he said.
But both athletes were able to come back and play the sports they love.
After Cox took it easy for two months, she was able to get back on the court in August of her eighth-grade year but was moved to a defensive position, which allowed her to swap in and out of the game at her own pace, she said.
“It took a lot of work to get there, but it was really rewarding when I got to play for my coach again,” Cox said.
Once she got to high school, she was able to play “full go” throughout her high school career.
After Patterson had to spend three months doing online classes and nine months refraining from harsh physical activity, he was able to work out and play with his team again at the beginning of his senior year.
Cox is on her way to the University of Kentucky to study biology and communications. Patterson is going to Birmingham-Southern College on an art scholarship and he intends to study either architecture or medicine.
