Bomholt is back

Bomholt is back.

In a special meeting Monday night, Jay School Board unanimously approved Jerry Bomholt as the next Jay County High School boys basketball coach.

“I want to finish my career in a place I’m comfortable,” said Bomholt, 66, who led the Patriots from 1980 to ’84. “I had a great time and I was just a stubborn old mule … I should have stayed.

“Wife and I always talked, when the opportunity came we would try to go back and this was just the right time.”

Bomholt was one of four applicants interviewed by the board’s hiring committee, which was comprised of athletics director Steve Boozier, JCHS principal Chad Dodd, board members Jason Phillips and Chris Snow, board president Phil Ford, football coach Tim Millspaugh and girls basketball coach Kirk Comer.

“By far had the most experience although it was a very experienced field,” Boozier said. “He stood above the others. He’s coming to us with 549 wins. He has instant credibility and the ability to build a program.

“He had a connection to Jay County, yet it’s not a connection in a sense that he doesn’t really have anybody he knows in the program but he knows what Jay County is about. I think he has a very good idea of what we can do moving forward.”

During his first time at Jay County, Bomholt led the Patriots to a 57-39 record, including three straight sectional championships from 1981-83 and back-to-back appearances in the regional final in 1982 and ’83.

Bomholt’s travels took him to Princeton, before moving on to Southwestern (Hanover) for the first of two stints with the Rebels. He went to the state final in the first of his five seasons there before departing in 2002.

He then spent nine years with Shawe Memorial, compiling four sectional titles, before a two-year stint at Franklin. In 2014, he went back to Southwestern and turned a program that had won one game during the 2013-14 season into a team that was at once the No. 1 squad in Class 2A in the 2018-19 season. The Rebels had 20 or more victories and sectional titles in 2018 and 2019.

But his second term in Hanover ended on a sour note in February. Five days after upsetting Class 2A No. 4 South Decatur, Bomholt resigned as Rebels’ coach with two games remaining in the season. A Madison Courier article says Bomholt’s resignation came following concerns within the locker room.

“We did our due diligence,” said Boozier. “After we heard the whole story from coach Bomholt and from their AD (Tom Scroggins), along with several letters of support from people in that community — including players in the program — we felt good.

“He felt it was time for him to make a move and we took it as our gain.”

Bomholt sees his departure, especially late in his career, as a chance to be rejuvenated as a coach. He was approved on a three-year contract.

“I think more than anything it’s a situation that I think reinvigorates me,” he said. “It puts some trust back into some people you want to work for.”

Bomholt will enter his 40th year coaching with a 549-344 record, which is ninth among active coaches and 23rd all time for career victories.

Bomholt said he doesn’t necessarily have a specific stile of play, rather adapts based on the players in his program. When he led the Patriots the first time he had a rather short roster so they had to be crisp from the free-throw line and control rebounds. Later on, he had more athletic programs and played more up tempo.

“Our job is always to try to give the kids the best chance of winning,” he said. “How do we have to play to win most of our games?”

He will inherit a team that was 7-16 and suffered its first losing season since 2001. Ethan Dirksen, who will be a junior for Bomholt’s first year back, is the team’s leading scorer at 8.8 points per game. Gavin Muhlenkamp and Bennett Weitzel — who will be a junior and sophomore, respectively — averaged 4.6 points per game.

Bomholt and his wife Dee Dee will be relocating to the area soon, and while he has not yet met the players he’s ready to get back to coaching.

“I put a blue shirt on and told my wife it’s the most comfortable blue shirt I’ve had on in a long time,” he said.

“Just excited to have him as our coach,” Boozier said. “He’s a proven program builder an excellent teacher of fundamentals. I believe he will help us improve not only the basketball program but athletics in general.”

In other business, the school board extended Comer’s contract as JCHS girls basketball coach for three years, taking him through the end of the 2023 season.