Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
He had lost “Superman” and now he was feeling all alone.
Tanner Holden was in tears as he sat in Wright State’s dressing room before Thursday night’s game with UIC at the Nutter Center.
“I was torn up,” the Raiders star said just before midnight. “This was the first game I was playing without him and, honestly, it took a lot to get myself mentally ready to go out on the court.”
Delmas Conley, Holden’s 79-year-old grandfather and a shining light in his life, died Tuesday after a tough battle with pancreatic cancer. His wake is Sunday and the funeral service is Monday morning back home in Wheelersburg.
That’s where Holden had been until he returned to the WSU campus late Wednesday night.
“I wanted to be with my family,” he said. He said they comforted each other and told stories of his bigger-than-life grandfather, the man he called Papaw.
