McMurry president John Russell announced Wednesday that Ron Holmes will step down as men's basketball coach following the postseason. Holmes will continue as athletics director, a position he was hired to serve in a dual role in February 2009.
Over two decades as head coach of the men's basketball team, Holmes won two Texas Intercollegiate Athletics Association titles, three American Southwest Conference championships, seven ASC West Division titles, two consecutive trips to the NCAA Division III Sweet 16, and through Saturday's win over Howard Payne, he has compiled a 346-182 record.
&&g-boxr&&In addition to his decision to step down as head coach, Holmes will turn over the reins to second-year assistant coach Matt Garnett. Garnett, a 2004 graduate and former all-America selection from Wayland Baptist, will take over immediately following the conclusion of the 2009-10 season in his first head-coaching job.
Although Holmes said he would like this decision to be solely a celebration of Garnett's first head coaching gig, Russell said that he did not want Holmes' impact and service to the university to go without honor.
"The impact Ron Holmes has had on the young men he's coached in his 20 years at McMurry will forever be defined by his attention to their development as whole persons. Through this move, Ron will be able to devote his full attention to enhancing the role that a quality intercollegiate athletic experience has on all of the student-athletes who have chosen to study and compete at McMurry," said Russell. "He has given McMurry a strong men's basketball program and demonstrated the promise to extend that strength throughout all 19 sports in which McMurry student-athletes currently compete."
Holmes' journey as McMurry's head coach began in the 1990-91 season, but his ties with McMurry began as a student-athlete. Holmes played four seasons for coach Hershel Kimbrell and graduated in 1977. Kimbrell won 448 games in 31 seasons as the Indians' head coach. Holmes initially took the high school coaching route after briefly spending time as Kimbrell's assistant following his playing days. He compiled 169 wins at the high school level before he was chosen to follow his former mentor, after the 1989-1990 season.
Holmes witnessed many successes on the basketball floor in his tenure at McMurry, but none better than the three seasons that spanned from 1998-2001. Earlier this season, Holmes welcomed back 14 members of those teams that combined for a 73-9 record. The 1999-2000 squad won a school record 27 games and lost just twice advancing to the NCAA Elite Eight before losing at eventual national champion, Calvin. The following season, McMurry posted a 25-5 record under Holmes, won its second-straight ASC tournament championship and made it back to the Sweet 16.
"You always want to leave something better than the way you found it if there's anything about you that's worthy. The spirit of McMurry basketball was captured, started and resonated through coach Kimbrell. The spirit is still here, I didn't improve on the spirit," said Holmes. "But the physical things that you see: the wood floor, the dressing room, the transportation, things that student-athletes and prospective student-athletes would see first, I've improved. Coach Kimbrell was handcuffed on some things that I wasn't. I was able to do some things that he wanted to do."
Holmes will coach his final two games at Kimbrell Arena Thursday and Saturday when McMurry takes on Texas Lutheran and Schreiner.