Holmes Seeks to Rule Sunset League Again : Basketball: Former Fountain Valley star comes back to coach Marina, which is trying to recapture its glory days.

Roger Holmes once ruled the basketball courts of the Sunset League.

The 6-foot-3 forward from Fountain Valley was a two-time all-county selection by The Times and was named Sunset League most valuable player in 1978.

In his junior and senior years at Fountain Valley, Holmes led the Barons to league titles. Fountain Valley also was undefeated in league both seasons.

“The league was very balanced at that time,” said Laguna Hills Coach Dave Brown, then the coach at Fountain Valley. “Back-to-back titles was unheard of.”

After averaging 23 points his senior season, Holmes was recruited by Wyoming, Oklahoma State and other universities but chose Long Beach State.

Said Brown: “He was the best all-around player I’ve ever coached.”

That’s all ancient history. “It’s so long ago, I don’t think any of these kids knew about it,” Holmes said, “until my athletic director clued them in.”

Holmes has returned to the Sunset League to coach Marina. He coached at Santa Margarita from 1990-92 after spending nine seasons as an assistant under Jim Harris at Ocean View.

He was an assistant to Bill Reynolds at Southern California College the last two seasons, but now Holmes is back at the high school level, and he hopes to bring back some stability to Marina.

“I’m the fourth coach they’ve had in four years,” Holmes said. “They built a pretty good tradition until recently.”

During Marina’s most recent basketball heyday, Steve Popovich was busy shouting instructions to future Duke center Cherokee Parks.

With Parks, the 1991 Southern Section Division I player of the year, leading the way, Marina reached the Division I-A final with a stunning upset of Mater Dei in the semifinals.

But Santa Barbara defeated Marina, 50-49, in the championship game, and the revolving door began to spin.

Popovich stayed at Marina for one more season before resigning in 1992 after his 16th year. Marina brought in fiery Greg Hoffman, who had built the program at Western, but Hoffman lasted only one season.

Popovich returned to coach the Vikings last season, but now he has returned to being an assistant coach to Bill Brummel at Saddleback College.

Enter Holmes, who inherits a team that finished 10-16 last season and placed sixth in the old eight-team Sunset League.

“All of my coaching friends are saying it will take three to four years to turn this thing around,” Holmes said. “But for me, I don’t want to wait. I want to get that success now.

“If I expect our guys to give it their best shot, every time out, they deserve the same from me. I don’t want to sell this team short. I think I know what it takes to have a good program.”

Few would argue about Holmes’ basketball knowledge.

His high school teammates called him “coach.” Although opposing coaches couldn’t find ways to stop him, all respected him.

“He was a great player and person,” former Edison Coach Dave Mohs said. “He was always kicking our butt.”

Said Brown: “You tend to forget how good he was. He was a winner in every sense of the word; a rare gem that doesn’t come along too often.”

Although a knee injury cut short his collegiate career, Holmes hopes his players will show the same fire he had.

“I’m not a yeller or screamer,” Holmes said, “but I’m demanding.”

Assistant Clayton Olivier, who played at Los Amigos and USC, is there beside Holmes making the same demands of the Marina players.

“I’ve told the kids that we can’t get out there and help them do it,” Holmes said. “We can only give them our experience and they have to go with it.”

1993-94 IN REVIEW

Standings

League Overall School W L W L Fountain Valley 12 2 22 6 Huntington Beach 11 3 19 10 Servite 10 4 20 10 Edison 9 6 19 11 Ocean View 8 6 14 14 Marina 4 10 10 16 Santa Ana 2 12 3 18 Westminster 1 13 5 21

Highlights

Edison needed to defeat Ocean View in a fourth-place playoff game to receive an automatic bid to the Division I-A playoffs, then the Chargers made a memorable run under first-year Coach Larry Hirst. Micah Kroeger and Ben Beard were among the players who stepped up their performance in the playoffs, and Edison raced all the way to the final. There, the Chargers challenged highly-touted Mater Dei but lost, 65-59, before 13,395 at the Pond of Anaheim. . . . Servite, behind all-league players David Downs, Kristian Vallas, and Mark Seaton, finished third in league. But the Friars advanced to the Division III-AA final before losing to Santa Margarita. . . . Fountain Valley won the league for the first time in five years under Gordon Billingsley, the Times Orange County Coach of the Year. League MVP Brandon Leimbach, Danny Hoppie, and Phil Domingo led a balanced unit that reached the Division I-AA quarterfinals before losing to Long Beach Poly. . . . Huntington Beach’s Tony Gonzalez, a two-time all-county selection by The Times, earned a scholarship to play football and basketball at California. Gonzalez and all-league guard Matt Malmquist helped the Oilers advance to the Division II-AA quarterfinals, where they lost to Inglewood.