This is where it all started.

That single thought played in Kimberly N. Holland's mind as she sat in the Southwest DeKalb High School gymnasium, watching Angelo Taylor and Terrence Trammell.

HYOSUB SHIN / hshin@ajc.com/Staff Photographer (ENLARGE)

Sports agent Kimberly N. Holland hugs Olympic athlete Angelo Taylor at a sendoff at the Southwest DeKalb High gym in July.

RELATED LINKS: • More photos of the Olympics sendoff

The athletes, bound for the Summer Olympics, had returned to their alma mater for a pep rally staged on their behalf.

As the band played, the cheerleaders cheered and Taylor and Trammell gave speeches, Holland couldn't help but remember her own start as a sports agent, a field still dominated by men.

It's not the profession she envisioned for herself. She wanted to be an attorney, to fight for social change and justice, to give voice to those who had none.

After high school, she hit the track running, so to speak. She graduated from Norfolk State University, worked for Sen. Edward Kennedy, then moved to Atlanta.

She spent two years here at LaFace Records before returning to Virginia, where she enrolled at a Christian school, the Regent University School of Law.

Holland had been raised in a Christian home, educated in Catholic schools. Regent, she thought, was the perfect place to continue both her education and search for spiritual purpose in her life.

It didn't take long for her to become disillusioned with law. She didn't like the way the rule of law was applied in some instances, that sometimes cases were decided according to who you knew and how much money was at your disposal.

"I'd cry it was so bad," she said.

She wanted to give up, but too many people's dreams hung on her success or failure.

She would be the first in her entire family to get a graduate degree. They were counting on her, and she wanted to make them, especially her parents, proud.

Holland started to pray. "Show me an area of law I can be passionate about and make a positive difference," she asked God.

She returned to Regent for a second year and something completely unexpected happened.

In 2001, her then brother-in-law Trammell was looking for an agent and asked Holland to help. While she never cared much for sports, she saw an opportunity. Maybe, she thought, this could be a career for her.

So she prayed. She likens her struggle with Jacob wrestling with the angel in the 32nd chapter of Genesis. Eventually, she decided to do it.

By her third year of law school, Holland was a certified sports agent and Icon Management Inc. was born. She graduated in 2002 from law school and returned to Atlanta.

Southwest DeKalb was where Trammell and Taylor began their run into the history books, sprinting to Olympic medals.

Taylor, who signed with Holland last year, already has earned two gold medals, one for the 400-meter hurdles and the other for the 4x400 relay at the 2000 Olympic Games.

Trammell, a two-time silver medalist, is considered the favorite to win the gold this year in the 110-meter hurdles.

Since signing Trammell six years ago, Holland has represented an elite group of track and field athletes, including Walter Dix, who recently signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Nike; 2004 Olympic gold medalist Shawn Crawford; and LaShawn Merritt, the youngest track and field athlete to sign with Nike.

And so you can understand why this pep rally was a big moment not just for Trammell and Taylor but also for their 30-something agent.

Four years ago, she was at Southwest DeKalb welcoming Trammell back from Athens, where he won the silver.

Today, she represents eight — count them, eight —track and field athletes competing in Beijing.

Some born with much direction. Some who took a little while to find their way, like her. And that reminded Holland of another thing as she sat there watching the crowd of students as they admired the athletes.

It could happen to anyone.

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