Football:

By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor

It seems that many sports fans go no further than wins and losses when determining a great coach.

Perhaps it’s the leader of a team that has the most talent and makes the deepest playoff run.

If you’re able to delve a tad deeper, though, the best coach can and should be considered the one who gets the most of his/her talent, and sometimes that doesn’t mean a championship.

What kind of impact did he or she have in developing an athlete and how did they get their program to reach heights that many didn’t believe possible?

It’s in that line of thinking that amongst all the solid coaching jobs done in this coverage zone, that San Dimas’ Mark Holman did arguably the most with what he had than anyone.

Consider the start to the 2019 season.

The Saints opened the year with an eight-point victory against Montebello and then fell to both Whittier and Bonita, by nine and 10 points, respectively.

In that Smudge Pot showdown at Citrus College back on September 14, Bonita controlled for most of the way before the Saints scored late to make the game look closer than it really was.

Sitting at 1-2 after the first three games, having some key injuries to deal with and not exactly a roster stacked with blue-chip athletes that Division 1 schools were looking at, Holman, his staff and players tightened its collective belt, committed to one another and went on one hell of a run.

San Dimas went 69 consecutive days without a loss, including an undefeated run to a Valle Vista League championship, a trip to the CIF-SS Division 9 semifinals after knocking off undefeated and No. 1 seeded Foothill, and their 11 wins in 2019 was tied for best amongst any program in our coverage zone.

It is for those reasons and more that Mark Holman has been named the 210 Prep Sports Football Coach of the Year.

When asking what he did to turn around the season after its 1-2 start, Holman firmly believed that wasn’t an accurate narrative.

But then again, he obviously knew more about the inner workings of his program, their talent and the character they possessed far greater than any of us in the media that only saw or read about them on Friday nights.

Regardless, though, the Saints needed a spark and got one.

Following the back-to-back losses, San Dimas would hammer Colton and Pomona in consecutive weeks by a combined margin of 88-20.

That would set up one of their two biggest wins of 2019.

The Saints went over to Covina District Field on October 4 and knocked off VVL power Northview, 27-13, in a game the Vikings led early on.

A successful onsides kick and 180 rushing yards and three TD’s later by senior Nick Cuda and the Saints were on their way to a VVL championship.

After wins over Baldwin Park, Covina, Rowland and Wilson, San Dimas was off to the CIF-SS Division 9 playoffs.

They opened the postseason with a 49-20 victory over upstart La Salle, which was expected.

But not what happened next.

San Dimas hosted a Foothill program that was 11-0 and ranked No. 1 in Division 9.

The Knights headed over to San Dimas from Santa Ana with more than a little confidence and swagger.

But this Saints’ team got on the board first and never trailed in a 21-18 surprise victory to many, including the so-called experts.

In fact, CalPreps, a website that had a lot of success in projecting games, predicted a 35-17 victory for Foothill, but San Dimas was having none of it.

In that game, so many different players stepped up, which is imperative in slaying a No. 1 seed.

Nick Cuda ran for another 150 yards, scored once and picked off two passes.

Ryan Bulick hit Jacob Buccola on an 86-yard TD pass.

Offensive lineman and scholar-athlete Nicolas Guerra also scored on a short run, his first and only carry of the season.

And senior Andrew Ramos, who had been injured most of the season, sealed the victory with a last-minute interception, his first of 2019.

North Torrance would shut out the Saints, 14-0, in the semifinal round, but that can’t and won’t take away from both a magical and historic season, which isn’t just measured in wins and losses.

Consider the fact that each of the 13 San Dimas opponents knew the Saints offense relied almost solely on its running game and yet time and again, the boys in blue walked off the field with the W.

San Dimas rushed for 360 yards per game in 2019, while throwing for just north of 100 yards each Friday night.

And to be able to have that kind of success with just a 37-man roster says so much about both the San Dimas players and their coaches.

Aside from all the good that was done between the whistles, including huge year’s for Nick Cuda (1,700 yards rushing 19 TD’s), Bleau Wallace (1,013 yards rushing, 13 TD’s) and Jacob Buccola (1,200 yards rushing, 10 TD’s) to name a few, it was also the way in which his players carried themselves that in many ways is far more impressive than wins and losses.

I’ve told this story before, but in quarterfinal and semifinal round playoff games against Foothill and North Torrance, the taunting and trash talking and profanity-laced venom that was directed San Dimas’ way was extensive.

And to be on the visitor’s sideline (where there is more room) and watch player after player in blue take a cheapshot or to be baited or taunted and to see them pick themselves off the ground, hand the ball to a ref, put their head down and jog back to their huddle was both a powerful and noble way to carry oneself, or as they call it, ‘the San Dimas way.’

Rather than post just bits and pieces of questions asked of Coach Holman and his answers, we’ve decided to put each question and his full answers in this story to give the reader an idea of Holman’s personal thoughts on the 2019 season.

Question No. 1: How did the boys do in terms of your season’s expectations?
Holman: The team exceeded their own expectations I believe. As a coach at San Dimas, we always have high expectations. Beating our rival, winning league, and going deep into the playoffs are always goals. The team improved on the previous year, and I am very proud of what we accomplished.

Question No. 2: How did you guys turn it around after a kind of slow start to the year? Holman: I don’t want to think that we turned anything around. Being a young team, I feel we just had to believe in ourselves and stay the course. That’s what we did. Like any team, we had to deal with some key injuries and because of this we had to ask some young guys to step up sooner than they may have expected.

Question No. 3: What assistant coaches did their jobs well enough so that you only needed to focus on your responsibilities?
Holman: All of our coaches did a tremendous job. I’m fortunate that I have been coaching with the same core guys for a long period. Coach Danny Lopez our Defensive Coordinator has been with me since 2007. He does an amazing job with our defense and he gets the most out of our kids. He did an exceptional job this year due to the key injuries we dealt with. I feel the Defense got progressively better week.

Question No. 4: Can you hit on a couple or few special moments for you as a coach and a couple more that were special as a team? Meaning was there a moment or two that were really special to you? I assume one of them was when Andrew Ramos picked off that pass to seal the Foothill game after being injured all year.
Holman: There were a few special moments this past season. 1 being the onside kick vs. Northview that basically turned the tide in that game. The Northview game was the turning point of our season. 2nd moment was the win over Covina. Like I said before, our team dealt with injury and was super young. We were down by 2 scores at halftime to Covina and I just looked into the kids eyes and we all knew that if we got 1 or 2 stops on D, that we would win. We did. That last special moment was the big win over Foothill. Foothill is very good Orange County program who had a Calpreps rating of somewhere in the mid 30s. I don’t think anyone thought we had a chance in that game except the the guys in our locker room. This team really believed the could do anything. Northview and Covina wins were all about believing in the system and trusting the process. By the time we got to Foothill, the kids just knew how to do their jobs.

Question No. 5: Could you single out a few players that really left their mark on the program?
Holman: Nick Cuda (RB/DB) – Nick really left his mark on the San Dimas program. Not being the biggest kid, he really showed what you can do with just a total commitment to the weight room and off-season. Size really doesn’t matter.

Billy Hennessy (DE/LB) – Billy just led by example. He isn’t the a talker, but he showed up and went to work every day and it showed on the field. Defensively, we really were able to count on him making plays which helped alleviate some of the stress at some of the younger spots.

Bleau Wallace (RB/LB) – Bleau really left his mark beginning with game 3 when we lost another one of our defensive starters. Bleau is a total program guy. He was really never the biggest or fastest, but playing at San Dimas for 4 years he was able to step in and many positions and contribute he senior year. We would not have been successful without Bleau.

Fred Salazar and Nico Guerra (OL/DL) – Our offense really started clicking after some of our injuries and some of the new guys found their roles. The O and D lines were a sign of consistency and something that we could lean on this year.

Lastly, of all the things any coach could hope to achieve in a role of leadership, helping to get a student-athlete to believe they have something special and then to see it come to fruition is near the top of the list.

In Holman’s case, it was his best player, Nick Cuda, who turned in one of the area’s truly great performances in 2019 at both running back and receiving, and leading the Saints defense in interceptions, along with Ben Goodrich.

Cuda said: “I doubted myself a lot and Coach Holman saw something in me that I had yet to see in myself, and he eased me into the position, got me in the weight room and helped prepare me for an incredible senior year by making me believe in myself. It meant so much to be that he believed in me and it made my final year playing football so special.”

Senior players Niko Parhman and Nick Cuda both touched on what Mark Holman meant to them and San Dimas as a whole.

Quotable:

San Dimas senior Niko Parham: “Coach Holman was close with all of us on a personal level, which gave us great chemistry and ultimately led to us being one strong unit on the field. “He would never give up on you and wouldn’t ever let you give up on yourself. He knew how to motivate the team. Early in the season, we lost our rivalry game, and Coach Holman was able to make us believe that we were a good team and that we could do great things. He created a personal bond with everyone on the team and that made us all feel that we mattered. It made us more invested in the team.”

San Dimas senior Nick Cuda: “Coach Holman had a big impact on the program. He had a way of doing things which brought the team closer and it led us to a good year. He helped me a lot individually. He paved the way for me to have a good senior year through the weight room and easing me into the offense as a junior. Not only that, but he believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, and whenever I was mentally down in a game, he helped to pick me up.”

San Dimas 2019 Schedule & Results:

August 30: San Dimas 32, Montebello 24

September 5: Whittier 35, San Dimas 26 (game was later forfeited)

September 14: Bonita 35, Bonita 25

September 19: San Dimas 33, Colton 6

September 27: San Dimas 55, Pomona 14

October 4: San Dimas 27, Northview 13

October 11: San Dimas 43, Baldwin Park 26

October 17: San Dimas 58, Covina 55

October 24: San Dimas 49, Rowland 17

November 1: San Dimas 56, Wilson 0

November 8: San Dimas 49, La Salle 20

November 15: San Dimas 21, Foothill 18

November 22: North Torrance 14, San Dimas 0

Valle Vista League Standings:

San Dimas (11-2, 5-0)

Northview (8-3, 4-1)

Rowland (7-3, 3-2)

Covina (4-6, 2-3)

Baldwin Park (4-6, 1-4)

Wilson (2-8, 0-5)

210 Prep Sports Win Leaders (in alphabetical order):

Glendora (11-2)

Muir (11-3)

Rio Hondo Prep (11-1)

San Dimas (11-2)

Monrovia (10-2)

Rancho Cucamonga (9-4)

Bonita (8-3)

Northview (8-3)

St. Francis (8-3)

Maranatha (7-4)

Pasadena (7-4)

La Salle (6-5)