Hokies Court Track Stars/Grassfields HS Teammates Grant Holloway and Patrick Jones

The dog days of summer present quite the conundrum for Tech's staff on the recruiting trail; just as the coaches try to step up the pressure ahead of football season, many top prospects turn their attention to other pursuits.

Competing on the track team in the offseason is a favorite diversion of a number of the team's top targets in 2016, but a pair of teammates at Chesapeake's Grassfield HS likely view their time on the track as equally important as their time on the gridiron.

Both WR Grant Holloway and DE Patrick Jones are readying for a trip to the New Balance Nationals Outdoor championships in Greensboro, N.C. this weekend, even as the Hokies step up their interest in the duo.

"I just think there ain't but so much football you can do," said Martin Asprey, the pair's head football coach at Grassfield. "There's definitely a danger in overtraining, while track is a whole different thing....After five months, they come back and say 'coach, I'm ready to do something else.'"

Holloway says his high school staff is completely accepting of his interest in pursuing track independently of football, and thanks to his proficiency in events as varied as sprints, hurdles, long jump and high jump, it's hardly a surprise they're willing to let him focus on his passion for the sport.

"I'm just focused on my track meets through July," Holloway said. "Then they know that after the end of the July, I'm back on my football grind."

But rather than simply being away from the Grassfield staff for a few months, Asprey says the two sets of coaches are intertwined. Defensive coordinator Leroy Harper Junior doubles as the head track coach, while Jamie Nixon also works as an assistant on both the football and track squads, which Asprey believes helps the programs stay connected.

"Our defensive coordinator is still spending time with them all summer, which is really exciting for us," Asprey said. "It helps us out tremendously to be able to keep tabs on our players like that."

While the coaches at Grassfield have track as an outlet to keep up with their players, recruiters like members of the Hokies' staff have a much harder time staying in touch. Nevertheless, Tech's coaches have still expended plenty of effort to make sure Holloway and Jones know they're still priorities for the team.

To that end, some of the coaches stopped by the 757 earlier this spring to check in with the pair during the spring evaluation period, with area recruiters Bryan Stinespring and Zohn Burden giving the duo their full attention.

"Coach Stiney and Coach Zohn both came by," Holloway said. "Coach Stiney even swung by mom's school where she teaches as well, which was cool. I think he's one of the best recruiters out there."

That visit also gave the Hokies a chance to get a closer look at Jones, before ultimately deciding to offer him on June 10.

Blessed to receive and offer from Virginia tech today #VT #Hokies #ACC #HokieNation pic.twitter.com/a5E2OsIdsl— Patrick Jones II (@P_jones9) June 10, 2015

"I was really surprised when I heard," Jones said. "My coach told me they'd offered, then I called Coach Stinespring and Coach (Charley) Wiles and talked to them about it."

Asprey says the team's interest in Jones shouldn't have come as such as a shock.

"They've always had him on their radar, but it's a numbers game," Asprey said. "They wanted to get things in place and make sure he could actually commit. They don't want to say in February 'there's no spot for you' because that looks bad on them."

But Tech was mainly motivated to pull the trigger once the staff got a look at Jones' bulked up new frame.

The team got a look at him when he visited for the Commonwealth Cup matchup in late November, an experience that Jones says showed him the the program's "great atmosphere," but he was still growing at that point.

Jones planned a visit with Holloway for the team's spring game, but "rain kept us from going," and the Hokies still didn't get a chance to get a look at him in person.

But once they visited Grassfield and got their eyes on Jones and his 6'5", 235-pound frame, it's no shock that they followed up with an offer.

"They said they wanted me there a lot," Jones said. "Coaches normally like my athleticism and my speed off the ball, to go with my size."

Asprey notes that Jones' potential to pack on some pounds and fill out his lanky frame is also particularly tantalizing to coaches.

"He's still 16, he's not even 17, so he's still a small young man," Asprey said. "Once he starts eating right and changes his diet, he'll put on some weight."

Jones' size has been changing rapidly, and so too has his position on the football field. He started off last season as an outside linebacker, but the Grassfield staff quickly realized that wasn't sustainable.

"He started two games at linebacker, but we had this lumbering kid playing physical out there, so it was a no-brainer," Asprey said. "We felt like we needed him on the field more, so we started using him there and at tight end. He has good hands as well, even though we mainly use our tight ends like H-backs."

As Jones' size increased, it became an easy fit for him to start throwing discus on the track team.

He's become so proficient at the sport that he'll be joining Holloway at the national competition this weekend. But unlike Holloway, his focus seems to be more on the football side of things.

Holloway stresses that he remains committed to both sports equally, and is searching for a school that will let him split his time between the two disciplines.

"That's my big plan, to play both sports," Holloway said. "And it's all under control (at Tech), they know I could do both, and they say I could be a threat on both."

Holloway says he's already spoken with Tech's track staff about his situation, and they're very receptive to letting him compete as part of both programs. The arrangement is hardly without precedent; current football players J.C. Coleman and Demitri Knowles both run sprints for the team, while David Wilson started his burgeoning track career during his days in Blacksburg.

That makes Holloway confident that he'll consider the Hokies until the very end of his recruitment.

"I wouldn't say they're my favorite, but Tech is definitely on my list," Holloway said. "Between the track part of it, and the coaches, they're up there."

Yet Hokies fans will have to wait a while longer before Holloway reveals exactly where Tech sits on his list. He plans on stretching his recruitment out through his senior season.

"It's all still up in the air so far," Holloway said. "I know a lot of the big 757 guys are committing, but I want to take my time."

That's a viewpoint Asprey wholeheartedly agrees with, particularly when it comes to finding a school that will support his combination of track and football ambitions.

"I told him 'you're getting sold a car here, and you've got to pick a school that you feel genuinely will let you do both,'" Asprey said. "And these coaches, their jobs are on the line. I told him, 'you've got to make to sure they're not just telling you what you want to hear.'"

Tech's staff is anxious to get Holloway back on campus to prove that their dual sport overtures are genuine, especially after the aborted spring game trip, but the rising senior says those track commitments will likely tie him up until football season arrives.

"They've asked me about visiting this summer, but if I can't, they say it's also fine," Holloway said. "It's tough with all the track meets, though."

But he says he is targeting a return to one of Tech's games sometime in November as a kind of "birthday present" to himself.

Jones is less certain about when he'll return to campus, with a visit to Duke and camps at Alabama and Georgia likely to take up much of his time this summer, but he says he would be open to traveling to Tech with Holloway, someone he's "pretty close" with these days.

For his part, Asprey hopes that the pair get the chance to see Blacksburg together, and it's hardly a stretch to suggest that Tech's staff harbors the same hope.

"College is supposed to be fun, and so is recruiting," Asprey said. "You should bring people that have will have fun with you."