Lexington native shows write stuff to lead at MSU

Note: The folks in Lexington actually did a great job showing this article on a web page here. Published May 8, 2009.

His Michigan State Spartans football team made a New Year's Day bowl game; his men's basketball team made a magical NCAA Tournament run.

Even his Croswell-Lexington Pioneers made their deepest run in the high school football state playoffs this fall.





So why is Lexington native and MSU Athletic Director Mark Hollis wasting his time writing fiction when real life is working out so well?

"It's more to kill time than anything," Hollis, a 1980 Cros-Lex graduate, said. "It's pretty much laid out, but it needs a lot of editing.

"I do it more for stress relief rather than read all the time. It's one of those things. If it gets in the hands of a publisher, that would be great."

Hollis, 46, has spent a decade on his novel, which is set in Lexington. On the road with the Spartans, he's added to a short story until it became a full-length work, currently untitled.

"What I did is I took people I know and then buildings that I know," he said. "There's a real-estate office that I used to spend time around, the old red barn in the apple orchards, the cemetery there, the cliffs along the beach there and the harbor.

"They all have a different role and I use that memory and kind of made a fiction novel."

The plot centers on a young woman uncovering a governmental conspiracy.

"It's one of those where it's got the government and organized crime working together on an anti-chemical testing program," Hollis said. "A few people die along the way, a few people have fun along the way."

It's been quite a chapter in Hollis' own story lately as better-than-expected success in the two featured sports came to East Lansing.

Another notch will be added to his story Saturday, as Hollis is being presented by MSU's College of Communication Arts & Sciences with the outstanding alumni award. Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen is among the other honorees.

"It really has been a good year," Hollis said. "Sometimes with the economic situation, we tend to focus more on negatives and failures.

"The Final Four in Detroit gave people a weekend of hope and a weekend of escape. That was a very enjoyable experience for our folks and those that became Michigan State fans."

Hollis, a former basketball and football captain at Cros-Lex, has been in charge of MSU athletics since September 2007.

Despite being swamped professionally, Hollis has continued to stay rooted.

Hollis attended a postseason football game during Cros-Lex's run to the state semifinals this fall. Next month, he is the guest speaker at a dinner for local high school athletes and administrators hosted by Cros-Lex at Fore Lakes Golf Club in Kimball Township.

"He was very supportive during that time period," Cros-Lex Athletic Director John Knuth said. "I know he's appreciative and certainly proud of his roots."

Knuth wasn't surprised to hear Hollis, who has engineered creative ways to get MSU on the national sporting stage, has a knack for prose.

"It doesn't (surprise me) because people like Mark usually have a very creative side," Knuth said. "Someone who is successful in that capacity, you also have to have a creative side."

Hollis' father-in-law, Emmett's John Donnellon, said he'd read the book if it got published.

"I know he's been working on it," Donnellon said, "but I don't know where he finds the time, to tell you the truth."

Storybook endings are nice for life and on paper to Hollis, but his real desire it to have his work hit the big screen.

"You do it to keep your mind hopefully sharp," Hollis said. "I'm a continuous thinker and that's kind of what it takes in this profession. You'll just have to see the movie when it comes out."