Sun Nov 08 2009
By JASON STEIN
For years Maryann (Nusbaum) Holderman has been making the journey to Columbus for the girls' state basketball tournament but it has been as a spectator and not as an active participant.
However, when the former Fairview High School and Ohio Wesleyan basketball player makes the trek down to Columbus this year, it will be as the head coach of the Mt. Blanchard Riverdale Lady Falcons where she will finally fulfill one of her dreams.
"I've been going to Columbus every single year since I've been coaching," said Holderman, who began her coaching career in 1995 at Wayne Trace Junior High. "I've always watched the coaches, watched their mannerisms and watched how they conducted their teams and I always thought 'how neat,' and it's always been a dream of mine to be on the floor down there during state tournaments ... it's kind of unbelievable."
Holderman initially went to college for nursing but soon made a switch into a different field where she could also begin her coaching career and where she could draw from what she learned as a player under Dan English, her coach during her last three seasons at Fairview.
"When I switched to education it was because I knew I wanted to work with kids, coaching just kind of fell into place," recalled Holderman. "I've tried to model myself after what I learned in high school and in college. I had two great coaches in Dan English and Nan Carney-DeBord.
"I know for a fact that if it wasn't for my coach believing in me as a player, I wouldn't be where I am today, I wouldn't be coaching. I firmly believe that he (English) is a big reason for that."
Holderman remains in contact with both of her former coaches and has even been given some friendly advice as she prepares to make her state semifinal coaching debut.
"I told her how proud of her I was, to enjoy the whole experience and last but not least to not let her players just be satisfied to go down to Columbus but to go win both games," noted English who has coached at state four times at the helm of Fairview, winning once. "I also said that this experience may never happen again but I gave her no coaching advice because she has done just fine."
From challenging her girls to shoot 10,000 shots over the summer, something she had to do when she was at Fairview, to providing her team with a defense-first mentality, Holderman continues to coach the game the way she was taught.
"I was not the best basketball player," began Holderman. "I played defense really well but I was never an offensive threat to say the least. Defense is always something I've prided myself in.
"The way I played in high school is how I teach my girls to play. We play a full-court press, we do a lot of things defensively with trapping and trying to create our offense from our defense. That's kind of what I was taught in high school and college and I just try to incorporate that in my teams as I coach."
"Maryann was one of the hardest workers I ever had," added English. "As a player she didn't have all the talent in the world, but she played a lot because she played so very hard ... she was a real bulldog on defense."
Her defensive play helped Fairview make its first regional appearance in 1986, Holderman's senior season, and after stints as a coach at Wayne Trace Junior High, Old Fort and Fostoria, her defensive coaching abilities has helped her guide her Riverdale teams to a 65-6 overall record and a perfect 42-0 North Central Conference record in her three years in charge of the Falcons.
English witnessed first hand just what kind of a coach his former player was during his three years at Evergreen.
"She had very good teams at Fostoria and we used to scrimmage her when I was at Evergreen," recalled English. "I could tell then she knew what she was doing. Her teams were well coached and they played very hard just like she used to."
Currently, Holderman not only attributes her success to the people she learned from but to the girls and coaches she has the pleasure of working with.
"I think the bottom line is that I've got girls who are committed. I've got girls who are willing to go the extra mile, they're willing to do what it takes in the off-season to make themselves better and that's why they have continued their success for the past three years," said Holderman whose team made it to the regional semis last season, the furthest she had gone as a coach prior to this year. "I also have a great coaching staff. It's not just me alone, everybody on our staff works hard. The girls are willing to do what we ask (which includes having 24 of them rise to the challenge of making 10,000 shots last summer) and are reaping the rewards right now."
With a husband and two young children, Holderman is content to remain where she is but says that she stays in contact with people in the Sherwood area as her family and friends still reside there. She also continues to follow the Apache basketball program especially since she has a niece (Samantha Rhodes) playing junior high basketball and another niece (Blake Nusbaum) who plays for the high school.
But for now, it's likely that her family and friends and her former coach and mentor will be the ones who will follow what she does, especially when she takes the court this Friday at Value City Arena to lead her Falcons into battle at 3 p.m. against Sugarcreek Garaway.
"It is such a great feeling to have her going to the state tournament," English concluded. "I know how much hard work she has put into it and she deserves all the credit in the world."
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