Piedmont head coach James Holan announced his resignation from the Highlanders’ football program, and from his teaching position, as he will leave effective at the end of next week to pursue an opportunity at the college level.
“This was the right opportunity. I have passed on other jobs before, but this is the right job at the right time,” said Holan, who cannot publicly release the name of the school until that program has a chance to run its own press release. “It is a lot of change at once. I got engaged right before Christmas (December 21), so it has been a whirlwind. We are leaving everything we know, so it’s exciting but also a lot of unknown.”
Holan led the Piedmont program for the past three seasons, having taken over for Scott Coats, after serving for two years on Coats’ staff. Holan and now-former Encinal coach Ricky Rodriguez were both assistants together on the Highlanders’ staff in 2013, before Rodriguez left to rebuild the Jets’ program.
In his first year as head coach, Holan led Piedmont to a 9-3 record, beating Del Norte in the first round of the Division IV playoffs before falling to Fortuna in the quarterfinals. The Highlanders also went 5-0 in the WACC-Shoreline that season, for the second straight year, resulting in a promotion to the Foothill Division.
In 2016, playing in the higher division, Piedmont still won eight games, including a quarterfinal win over Kennedy-Richmond, before falling to eventual section champion Cardinal Newman in the semifinals. This year, the Highlanders reached the quarterfinals once again, falling to Harker. In three years, Holan’s teams won 26 games and went to either the quarterfinals or semifinals all three seasons.
The program’s success with Holan at the helm mirrored the success it experienced in his two years as an assistant coach. Piedmont reached the Division IV quarterfinals in 2013, and won its first 12 games to reach the semifinals in 2014.
“That 10-0 (regular season) year was special, and so was going 8-2 in my first year as head coach,” Holan added. “I will always be grateful to Coach Coats for giving me an opportunity. I owe a lot to him.”
Now, Holan will get his shot at the next level, as an offensive line coach and offensive coordinator, at the NCAA Division II level. He leaves behind a program that established consistent success.
“The biggest thing to me is that we became a competitive program at the top again, after Piedmont was on the brink of maybe not even having a program prior to myself and Scott (Coats) coming in here,” Holan said. “But we became consistently competitive, and I’m confident in what these kids can do going forward.”
Prior to his arrival at Piedmont, Holan was an assistant coach at Mission Hills-San Marcos.
