Brendan Holmes steps down as Ocean View boys’ basketball coach
Brendan Holmes has stepped down after one season as head boys’ basketball coach at Ocean View High, he said Wednesday.
Holmes said he resigned due to family reasons. He and his wife, Ashley, have an infant daughter, Riley, at home.
“I knew in the beginning taking over that it was kind of a one-year run through, just to see how things were going to go,” said Holmes, 28, who teaches at Bell Intermediate School in Garden Grove. “I was trying to figure out if I could balance a new baby and my wife, and basketball. As the year continued on, it became apparent to me that if I was going to be the kind of coach that I wanted to be for these guys, then I would not have been the kind of husband and father that I wanted to be. I placed more importance on my family, for sure.”
Holmes, a former Marina High boys’ basketball standout who leads the Vikings with 2,015 career points scored, was a walk-on coach who took over following the resignation of Jimmy Harris. He’s the son of Roger Holmes, the Fountain Valley athletic director who previously coached at Santa Margarita, Marina, Fountain Valley and most recently Ocean View before resigning in June 2018.
Ocean View went 16-13 overall in Brendan Holmes’ one year in charge. The young Seahawks were 6-4 in the Golden West League and failed to win their sixth straight league title, finishing in third place. Ocean View made the CIF Southern Section Division 3AA playoffs, losing at Laguna Beach 64-46 in the first round.
Nolan Naess scores 29 points to lead the No. 4-seeded Breakers past the Seahawks 64-46 and to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 3AA playoffs.
“One of our seniors [Michael Caruso] broke his hand in the Westminster game to start the second half of league,” Holmes said. “That was tough for us. He was one of our bigger guys ... but I’m definitely proud of the progress these guys made. I think by the end of it, they really had a good feel of what playing at the varsity level is like. I’m excited to see what they’re going to do to with that group next year.”
Ocean View athletic director Tim Walsh said he understood that Holmes had an unofficial “interim” tag when he took the job. Walsh said that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the opening for a new head coach will be posted when the time is appropriate.
“[Holmes] wants to be home with his young family, and I totally understand and support that,” Walsh said. “He’s a great coach. He’s a great young basketball mind, and I just think it wasn’t a great fit timing-wise for him. He wants to see his baby grow up, and I get that.”
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