Laura Lee Holman has a new challenge.
The fact that it will take her four hours away from New Hope High School, where she played for state titles and led teams in pursuit of championships, was a daunting proposition, but Holman decided last week that it was one worth taking because it will help push her to be an even better coach.
Last Friday, Holman resigned from her job as physical education teacher and girls basketball/volleyball coach at New Hope High to take a job as girls PE teacher and girls basketball coach at North Pike High in Summit in Pike County. Summit is about 75 miles south of Jackson and about 100 miles south of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“I am looking forward to that challenge of making a name for myself there and earning their respect,” Holman said. “Here, the day in walked in people respected me for what I did here as a student-athlete.
“This is my life. I sell my soul to it. My kids are always No. 1. Every decision I make is with my kids in mind. I hate walking away from a group of kids, especially after the season we just had (4-24). It was rough. I am not going to beat around the bush, but when I spoke to my kids I wanted them to know it had nothing to do with our record and what we did or were not able to accomplish. When they are 30 and making career decisions, I hope they will be able to understand it.”
Summit High is a Class 4A school in the Mississippi High School Activities Association. New Hope High is a Class 5A school. Southwest Mississippi Community College is literally right across the street from North Pike High, Holman said.
Holman said her job was approved last Thursday by the North Pike School District school board. She then submitted her letter of resignation at New Hope High on Friday.
Holman said her new PE job will be more of a “fitness oriented deal” that will allow her to go outside and not have her be inside all day, much like she is at New Hope High.
Holman said she didn’t know much about the girls basketball program, but she was eager for a new challenge. She said she received a phone call from North Pike High Principal Scott Hallmark, a former associate principal at West Point High and principal at Columbus High, and drove four hours for the interview.
“I found a good place, a really good place,” Holman said. “Even when I drove up, I felt really good about it. It just seemed like a place I could see myself at.”
Holman said it is a good time to make a “professional decision” to leave a place she played basketball and softball and had mentors like Cary Shepherd. She said she was grateful for the opportunity to be able to “live and learn” at New Hope, where she feels she was able to “make a name for herself” and to use that as a “launching pad to better herself professionally.” She spent six years as girls basketball coach, three years as volleyball coach, and two years as girls golf coach. She helped start the volleyball and girls golf programs at the school.
Ame Walker, who was an assistant coach for the New Hope High girls basketball team, said Holman’s passion for her players sets her apart.
“She is probably one of the most dedicated coaches I have ever had the privilege of working with and being around,” Walker said. “She is dedicated to the kids and has a genuine care and concern for their welfare and a desire to make them productive citizens and (help them) make it through life.”
Walker didn’t hesitate to say Holman’s players “are her life.” She said she has been friends with Holman for a long time and even played basketball against her. She said “there is not enough money in the world” to find a coach like Holman who cares as much for her kids and is willing to be there for them at all times.
“I played for (former New Hope High girls basketball coach) Kathi Fleming, and she made me who I am,” Walker said. “I feel like Laura Lee ranks right up there. I feel like we’re losing probably the best thing that has come through here, and may ever come through New Hope.”
Former New Hope High standout Taylor Baudoin echoed those sentiments. Baudoin was part of the 2013-14 New Hope High team that advanced to the Class 5A State tournament in Jackson. A 50-48 loss to South Jones in the state semifinals ended New Hope’s season. It was the program’s first time at the “Big House” since 1985.
Baudoin, who recently signed with Central Arkansas, was named National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I Honorable Mention All-American. The 6-foot forward led the Lady Bobcats to the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) tournament semifinals and the Region 23 tournament title game this past season. She averaged 18 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 2.6 steals per game. She credited Holman for being a “demanding coach” who developed relationships with her players so they could trust her and believe her when tried to get the most out of them.
“I feel like we knew if we didn’t give her what she demanded of us then I guess we wouldn’t be living up her expectations and we would be disappointing her,” Baudoin said. “When you have a coach who knows what she is doing, she is not going to expect more out of you than what you can give. We trusted in her and that it was worth it.”
Baudoin credits Holman for helping her get to the Division I level, a level she admitted she never thought she had a chance to reach. She said Holman made her work harder than she ever did, which prepared her for the obstacles she had to face when she was in college.
“She put us through a lot and made us mentally tough,” Baudoin said. “We knew we could make it through anything.”
Holman hopes to instill the same traits in her new program. She said she recalls Fleming, who led New Hope to the 1984 Class A title and runner-up finishes in 1985 (Class 3A) and 1989 (Class 4A), challenging her to put her name up on the New Hope High gym wall to be remembered forever. She said her players made her dream theirs and worked hard to realize it.
Holman replaced Tim Vaughan as girls basketball coach at New Hope High. She coached the Cottondale High (Fla.) girls basketball team to its first Final Four in 2009. The Lady Hornets finished 22-9 in Holman’s first season and lost to Orlando First Academy in the Class 2A state semifinals.
Holman played girls basketball for four seasons at New Hope High for coach Ricky Jones. She also played softball for five years for Shepherd. She went on to play basketball at Troy. She averaged 10.4 points per game and led the team with 52 3-pointers in the 2003-04 season to earn Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year honors. She finished her career at Troy with 1,160 points and as the school’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made (196 in 106 games) and attempted (545). Holman also earned academic all-conference honors in 2003-05 and in 2008.
In high school, Holman played point guard and averaged 18 points and three steals a game as a senior, earning first-team All-District honors.
In softball, she earned All-State, All-District, and team MVP honors. She hit .659 as a senior to lead the team, and The Clarion-Ledger named her the No. 1 slow-pitch softball player in the state. She helped lead the Lady Trojans to state championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
Holman said she will enter a situation at North Pike High like the one she faced in Florida. She said she didn’t know anyone in Florida when she took the job at Cottondale High, so that experience will help her when she arrives in Pike County for the next step in her journey.
“Anybody who knows me knows I am a very goal-oriented person and I have some goals for myself,” Holman said. “I would love to be able to say I have taken three different schools to the Final Four. … I made a name for myself in the North and I feel going to a new part of the state and playing against teams I don’t know, I just love the idea of the challenge of being able to go somewhere and being in that situation. I feel like it will make me better.
“I kind of feel like here not so much I have proven myself, but I have always told myself to be content but not satisfied. Here there is a contentment, but there is a part of me that I want to feel satisfied and that part of me is chasing dreams and being as successful as I can. I feel North Pike offers me the possibility to grow as a coach. It is a part of the state I am not from or familiar with. It is a whole new classification. It is a different playoff system. There are a lot of things there I feel will challenge me and make me grow as a coach. That is what really turned me on to it. They don’t know Laura Lee. They don’t know the kid who spent hours in this gym and hours on the softball field. I can go prove myself as coach Holman.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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