TYLER, Texas — The former head football coach at Tyler High School says farewell to East Texas and talks about his new chapter in Austin on CBS19.
Ricklan Holmes, who led the Tyler Lions for 11 seasons as head football and five years as asstistant head coach, has taken a position at Hutto High School as the asstistant head coach of the Hippos.
"I'm moving to the Austin area to join one of my close friends, coach Will Compton that took over Hutto High School last June," Holmes said. "To help him continue the process that he's going through with his team, going from a 5-5 season last year in his first year and looking really, really forward to this season. We got a great quarterback, got a good defense coming, offense is rolling. And so hopefully I can help him in any way I can and have the great season that he expects from his team."
Hutto's coach, Will Compton, has direct ties to Tyler High as a former offensive coordinator at John Tyler High School under head coach Dereck Rush.
At Tyler, Holmes hoisted a 79-51 record with a playoff mark of 8-4.
"It gets to a point to where you look at things in your career and you figure out what you want to do next," Holmes said. "I know that I'm getting on the other side of my career, which is towards the end. And I had to figure out where I want to put my family, where I want to put my career and how am I going to better myself as a football coach, and how can I help my other kids in other areas? So I knew that, coming into this deal, that I wanted to move outside of East Texas, I didn't know exactly where at the time. But resigning early, I wanted to give Tyler High the opportunity to find the best coach they possibly could to replace me."
Holmes resigned as head coach at Tyler High on Dec. 2 and TISD hired Rashaun Woods as his successor nearly seven weeks later.
As for what Holmes will miss most about the region, it's the community.
"The atmosphere," Holmes said. "The close knit cultural relationships that I've been able to build with the great John King and Longview High School. Getting to know the other coaches and seeing them go from being assistant coaches to coordinators to being head coaches now."
The coaches are one thing, but Holmes will also miss the young boys he watched turn into men.
"Just having the kids that come through that everybody's getting to know you know, like the Greg Ward's, the Tyus Bowsers, the Fred Ross, Jeremy Johnson, etc." Holmes said. "Just to have all of those great guys come through and have some part, some valuable aspects in their lives to help them be the great people that they are right now. That's the most fulfilling thing for me as a head football coach and being a Tylerite."
Hutto is a member of District 12-6A with Killeen Harker Heights, Temple, Bryan, Pflugerville Weiss, Waco Midway and Copperas Cove. The Hippos begin their season on August 2 against San Marcos.