J.R. Holmes of Bloomington South was named the winner of the 2021 Outstanding High School Coach Award presented by Wilson from the National Association of Basketball Coaches in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis. He was presented the award on April 2 at the NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show.
Holmes guided the Bloomington South boys to a 25-5 record that included championships in the Bloomington South Sectional and Seymour Regional in 2020-21. In 51 seasons as a boys’ varsity coach, he is the state’s all-time winningest coach with an 861-344 ledger, one of only three coaches in Indiana high school history with more than 800 victories.
That record includes 18 conference championships, 22 sectional trophies, eight regional crowns, two semi-state titles and Class 4A state championships in 2009 and 2011. Bloomington South has been a “final four” team six times and an “elite eight” squad 10 times during Holmes’ 39 seasons at the school.
Holmes’ overall numbers include a 30-14 mark in two seasons at Tunnelton (1970-72), a 113-104 slate in 10 seasons at Mitchell (1972-82) and a 718-226 record in his time at Bloomington South (1982-present). Remarkably, his Panthers have amassed 20 or more victories in a season on 17 occasions, including the past seven seasons. His teams have captured 10 Conference Indiana championships over the past 24 seasons, including five in a row from 2016-20.
Holmes is a 1965 graduate of Needmore High School, where he earned 16 varsity letters in four sports. He averaged 15 points as a junior on Needmore’s only sectional champion in basketball and the Hilltoppers went 43-6 in his final two seasons as a player. He went to Indiana State, lettered one season in basketball for the Sycamores and graduated in 1969. He spent one season as an ISU graduate assistant coach before becoming a high school coach at Tunnelton.
Holmes has coached 10 players who were chosen to the Indiana All-Star team, including his son Jonathan in 1999 and Anthony Leal, the 2020 Mr. Basketball. Holmes was the Indiana All-Star coach in 2001. He was named IBCA District 5 Coach of the Year in 1999, and he was voted an IBCA District 3 Coach of the Year in 2008 and 2019. He has earned numerous local and conference Coach of the Year honors. He was named USA Today’s National Coach of the Year in 2009, and he was selected NFHS National Coach of the Year for 2018-19.
Among his former assistant coaches who have become head coaches are Criss Beyers (Bloomington South girls, Martinsville boys, Warren Central boys, Franklin Central boys), Donovan Garletts (Marquette Catholic boys), Joe Granecki (Jennings County girls), Heath Howington (North Posey boys, Evansville Memorial boys), Matt Seifers (Mitchell boys, Southport girls, Bedford North Lawrence boys), Kyle Simpson (Southport boys) and Larry Winters (Bloomington South girls).
Holmes was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
He and his wife, Martha, have two children – Jonathan and Meredith. Jonathan played basketball at North Carolina and now is an assistant coach at Elon University in North Carolina. Meredith played tennis at Virginia Tech and now is an aerospace engineer in Albuquerque, N.M.
