ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — On his brother’s 16th birthday, they made a pact.

Jaren Holmes, whom St. Bonaventure basketball fans came to know last winter as Jaren English, owes everything he’s accomplished, everything he’s become to his mother, Gia Holmes.

She’s the one who got him started in basketball. She’s the one who told him to chase his dreams no matter what. The closest thing to a father figure that Jaren has ever had, his grandfather and late Uncle John, come from her side of the family.

“Nobody has been a father to me like my mother and those three together,” Holmes said.

The same is true for Jaren’s younger brother William.

On William’s 16th birthday, the brothers went out to dinner, just the two of them, where the younger sibling made a request, something that had been in the back of both of his mind for a couple of years. It’s time, William thought, to provide the ultimate tribute to their mother while cutting the final tie to the father they never knew.

“If there’s anything more I want in this world, I want you to get your name changed with me,” Jaren recalled William saying. “My brother’s not really emotional … when it comes to my father. And when I saw him break down in that instant, I was like, yeah, this is what I’ve got to do.”

“I just want to pay Mom back, and I don’t want him to have any ties to us in our careers that he can go and say, ‘that’s my son, those are my sons,’ and we have his last name. And I said, ‘I agree … ’”

AT FIRST, it seemed like an editing error.

In a segment on the Oct. 5 edition of Bonnies Insider, the athletic department’s weekly sports variety show, the junior guard was introduced as “Jaren Holmes.”

By that point, however, Jaren, who became an immediate glue-guy type, and endeared himself to the Bona faithful, as “English,” had already assumed the new surname. The team’s website was updated almost simultaneously, confirming the new moniker. And in that moment, it became clear that what looked like a mistake was actually the resolution to a much bigger plan.

As minors, the brothers knew they’d likely have to wait to begin the legal process so that their father couldn’t contest the decision.

“ … even though he hasn’t done anything for us or even given us the opportunity to get to know him,” Holmes said during a touching 40-minute Zoom interview last Friday. “To have two sons directly 10 minutes away from him and you never see them for 21 and 19 years, I knew the type of dude he was, and I felt he would try to contest it just to be spiteful to my mom.

“My mom has done nothing but try to mend the relationship with my father, try to let him be in our lives. She’s done nothing but be the best mother she could be.”

They also figured, while attempting to embark upon a basketball and baseball career, respectively, that it made sense to wait until they were slightly more settled.

OLDER BROTHER, after all, who’d gone by “English” and “JE” his entire life, still hadn’t garnered much in the way of recruiting interest despite a standout career at Romulus High School in Michigan. He didn’t want to further jeopardize those chances by confusing scouts and college coaches with a name change. His commitment, however, was steadfast, so much that when he graduated from Romulus, he actually had the principal give him two diplomas, “because I already knew I was changing my name to Holmes.”

For William, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-handed pitcher, that right time came in 2019, a year after being selected in the fifth round (151st overall) by the Los Angeles Angels and earning a signing bonus of $700,000.

For Jaren, that moment came later. The 6-foot-4 guard first had to navigate a season at Ranger Community College (Texas) and realize his dream of making it to the Division I level. At Bona, he didn’t want to be, or manufacture, a distraction in his first year.

Now established as a key player for one of the top teams in the Atlantic 10, his right time was now.

“The year came about and I was still English, but in my heart, I was Holmes already,” he noted. “And I knew that I was going to be Holmes, and I let everybody close to me know that my name was going to be Holmes next year …

“I was kind of worried; last year, I played so well, people started to call me English, JE, but as I knew the fans here and the love that I get from the community, I knew they would accept me no matter what.”

THE MONTHS-LONG process was a struggle, he acknowledged.

Holmes had to deal with “a bunch of different lawyers,” have a handful of different conversations. He had to prove to the courts that he was doing it for the right (and lawful) reasons. Amid a global pandemic, all of this had to be done virtually.

And then, on Sept. 30, with his mother and brother and maternal grandparents at his side in a local hotel room, the Bona fan favorite, over Zoom, finally received the news he’d been counting on since high school.

He was now Jaren Jameer Holmes.

“And it was just … a breath of fresh air,” he said. “I felt like I was almost starting over. It was a blessing that I lived 21 years under (the English name), but this was my time. At that moment, when the judge told me, ‘I grant you your mother’s maiden name,’ I just saw my mom break down, and my grandmother behind her broke down, and for the first time I saw my grandfather cry.

“Everybody just kind of jumped on me as if I was adopted. Like it was (a new family). I was just kind of like, ‘wow …’”

NEARLY TWO months later, some of his teammates, out of habit, still call him English, still call him JE. But that’s okay. If you refer to him as such, that just means you knew him on a personal level before the name change and that “anybody who still calls me that is family.”

But for him, it’s JH now.

It’s the least he could do for his mother, who made every conceivable sacrifice so that her sons could live a good life on the outskirts of Detroit, who carted them to and from every baseball and basketball practice, who paid for every AAU and travel tournament, who kept food on the table.

And it’s the least he could do for his grandfather, who taught Holmes the game and is still a daily source of knowledge for his grandson at age 92.

For Jaren, the judge’s words, the scene on Sept. 30 in that hotel room, were bigger than anything he’s experienced on a basketball court so far.

“To the world, it’s an honor to represent Holmes,” he said, “represent my mom, represent my grandfather, represent my grandmother. And my brother and I are going to carry on that legacy.”

Toward the end of Friday’s interview, an emotional Holmes thought back to his brother’s 16th birthday dinner. That was the moment the two became closer, “because I’d never seen him in that state before.” That was the night he embraced William and told him, “I’d do anything for you,” that family meant more than his name.

This was the night they agreed to carry on the Holmes tradition.

“We would always be good men, we would always be the men that our mom has tried to raise us to be,” he said. “Ultimately, it was like a breath of fresh air. I knew that I’d done the right thing for myself and my family.”

And now?

“I kind of smile when I hear the Holmes name. Like yeah, I’m a Holmes now.”