South Georgia - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

Three years ago, Eric Holland, then the head basketball coach at Turner County, left Ashburn and headed a few miles south on I-75 to Tifton. He had been a successful basketball coach at Turner, but yearned to coach on a bigger stage. Being a part of a winning program at the 1A level was one thing. Winning games against the biggest and best teams in the state was another matter entirely. Holland felt as though he could be successful at a 5A program. And as luck would have it, three years ago, the Tift County job opened up. He applied for the position and got the job. In the two full seasons that have elapsed since he took over the programs, the Blue Devils have been one of the best basketball teams in the state.

Holland graduated from Seminole County High, where he played football and basketball. He was a wide receiver on the football field and a point guard on the basketball floor. During his freshman year at Seminole County, he and his teammates won the region basketball title and advanced to the Final Four. When he was a senior, the football team won its sub-region championship. After graduating from high school, he attended Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, and played basketball for one year. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from GSW in health and physical education. When he finished his college education, he went into coaching. “I always wanted to be a coach. I come from a very athletic family. We all wanted to play football, basketball or coach. When I realized I had quit growing and wasn’t going to make it in the NBA, I went into coaching. I figured it was the best way I could give back to the community,” he says. Since leaving GSW, he has continued his education, earning a master’s degree in educational leadership from Albany State and a doctorate from Capella University, also in educational leadership.

His first coaching job was in Americus, where he won two state titles as an assistant football coach. He also coached basketball and made the Elite Eight twice. He coached at South Georgia Tech for a year, winning the conference there. Then he went to Turner County, and finally, to Tift. The move from Turner County to Tift was based on two factors: first, Holland’s aforementioned desire to coach at the 5A level. The second factor was related to Tift’s success over the years in basketball. “Tift had a good program with a great tradition. In Tifton, I could go up against the best coaches and teams in the state. You get to play the big boys every night,” says Holland.

In Holland’s first season at Tift, the Blue Devils went 24-5, won the Region 1-AAAAA championship and advanced to the Sweet 16. Four out of Holland’s six seniors went on to play basketball in college. Last year, Tift went 24-7, won the region again and made it all the way to the Final Four. Nine seniors were on that team, six now playing in college. For 2011, Holland would like to play for a state championship. “We are going to be young. But we want to win the region title again and go one more round farther than we did last year. We want to at least be state runners-up,” he says.

Despite the success Holland has enjoyed in Tifton, the job has not been without its challenges. The biggest challenge he has had is realizing that he can’t run a 5A program like he did a 1A program. At Turner, Holland handled just about everything on his own. He had assistants, but he had a different assistant every year. The program was small enough that he could handle the lion’s share of the work by himself. When he got to 5A, he realized he couldn’t do that anymore. Something had to change. “I had to trust my assistant coaches to come in and help me out. We have a middle school team, ninth-grade team and junior varsity team. I have to do budgets and arrange transportation. I had to have help managing these other teams. I’m a control freak, but I had to give up some control to my assistants and trust them to coach basketball at the same time,” he says.

Holland also discovered that basketball was not as big as he thought it would be in Tift County. At Turner, the gym was packed every night. In Tifton, the 2,600-seat gym might only have 400 fans in the stands at game time. “I wasn’t ready for that,” says Holland.

To raise the sport’s stature in the community, he began scheduling bigger schools with better programs. When people came to the games, he wanted them to see the best basketball in the state. He scheduled teams like Milton, McEachern and other traditional powers from the metro area. Not only do the fans get to see some excellent basketball, but the entire program benefits. The players get better when they play the best in the state, and those games also force Holland to improve as a coach. He has to work harder on his game plans and schemes, all of which helps the Blue Devils when the postseason arrives.

When his team is on the floor, Holland wants to make sure his players can adapt to anything opponents throw at him. He employs what he calls a 50-50 style of play - 50 percent of the time his team is running, the other 50 percent of the time the players are passing. Holland teaches his players to push the pace and move up and down the floor quickly. That doesn’t mean the Blue Devils can’t play a half-court game. “We run the floor but we can also execute if our opponents try to slow us down,” he says.

Holland’s philosophy is simple - if you play fast, you can still play well if the opponent tries to slow the pace. If you play slow, however, it’s much harder to run the floor if your opponent pushes the pace. “We play fast and we practice fast. Everything is about speed and tempo. But we can also play half-court if we need to.” Holland also demands that his teams play tough defensively. The Blue Devils are a man-to-man team, which is the style of defense he prefers. “All of my teams have been good defensively. We don’t want to give up transition buckets, layups or uncontested shots,” he says.

Things have gone very well for Holland at Tift County. He’s been successful at every stop of his coaching career. He would like to win a state basketball championship; that goal is fueling his career right now. If he ever wins a title, he might consider turning his attention to something else. He loves administration and wouldn’t mind being principal of a school. Another goal is to be a head football coach one day. He stopped coaching football at Turner County due to the time commitment football requires. However, he loves the game and would like to get back on the sidelines one day. “It’s been a few years since I coached football. But I still know enough football to coach the game,” he says. If an opportunity came available to be a coordinator, he would consider it. It’s not a huge leap from coordinator to head coach. “Football has been king everywhere I’ve been. I come from a football family. I’ve been out of coaching football for a while - maybe too long. But I’m prepared for any opportunities that come up,” he states. Right now, Holland is very content where he is. “I love coaching basketball, and I love administration,” he says.

Holland and his wife, Melissa, have been married for seven years. They have two sons – seven-year-old Eric Jr and one-year-old Ayden. When he isn’t coaching basketball, Holland enjoys reading, particularly books on leadership and academics. He also took up golf a few years ago, and he likes to get out on the golf course whenever time permits. ITG