Hard work was a common phrase used on Friday night to describe the two legends of Chesnee Eagles basketball as both Deion Holmes and Carey Swofford Burns had their jerseys retired in front of lots of family, friends, and Eagles fans. "A lot of hard work went into this," said Carey Burns. "It wasn't just hard work by me but by the people who loved me and kept me accountable and on the right track." Chesnee men's basketball coach Andy Pitt says he still tells his team today about the effort and hard work that lead to Holmes becoming a Chesnee legend. "When a lot of people were still sleeping in their beds Deion was here putting up shots," said Coach Pitt. "He had deals with the janitors to be able to get in here early and there were many nights that I had to run him out of the gym." Holmes, a current player for USC Upstate just moved into the top ten all-time scoring list for the Spartans, had his former number eleven jersey retired on Friday night with many current and former teammates in attendance. The honor is just another significant award from an amazing high school career as Holmes finished his high school career as the second all-time leading scorer in the South Carolina High School League history with 3,082 points while also recording 1,246 rebounds. On Friday night Chesnee was facing Carolina High School, a team that Holmes remembers well because he set the school's single game scoring record of 61 points against Carolina back in 2014. "People always ask me what my game high and I tell them 61 and I remember Carolina," said Holmes. "The timing for this honor couldn't be any better." Holmes, who was the AA player of the year in his junior and senior years, started four years for the Eagles where he was named All-Region, All-State, and All-Area all four years. He was also nominated as a McDonald's All-American his senior season, a season that saw him score 1,055 points and set a SCHSL record as he hit twenty-seven free throws in one game. The other Chesnee legend honored on Friday night was current girls basketball coach Carey Burns who had her number twenty-four retired for the Eagles. Burns was a member of the Eagles varsity basketball team for six years and holds both the school's scoring record (2,083 points) and rebounds record (1,576 rebounds). "We knew going into the game Carey was going to play hard for you from the tipoff to the sound of the horn," said former Chesnee girls basketball coach Bill Parris. "With her to put up the numbers she did against the competition we were playing against tells you how good of a player she was." In her six years of varsity basketball Burns started five of those years while making All-Region in each of those years. Burns also was named All-State in her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. Holmes and Burns both averaged a double-double for their careers as Burns averaged sixteen points and twelve rebounds in her career as an Eagle and Holmes averaged twenty-five points and ten rebounds in his career. Comments are closed.
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