Dave Holmquist nears legendary milestone

**Head men’s basketball coach Dave Holmquist leads practice in the gym at Biola University in La Mirada. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, contributing photographer)**

LA MIRADA – Only four college or university men’s basketball coaches in the history of the game have ever won 1,000 or more games. Four!

Biola University legendary coach Dr. Dave Holmquist is just eight wins away to add a fifth name to that list of coaches, which tops out with “Coach K” (Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski).

“We’re pretty close in the program to a thousand wins,” Holmquist said. “But we may just have 12 games, if that. We don’t really know what’s going to happen. If we can do well, maybe we can win and get up to that number and win enough games to reach that. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

Holmquist will begin his 41st year as coach of the Eagles men’s team when the season begins in January.

“It was a great opportunity for me,” said Holmquist, who started in 1978 as coach. “It’s just my school, with many life-long friends. I work with great people every day.

“When I graduated from college, I knew I wanted to be a college basketball coach. If you find a place you like, you stay there.”

Holmquist, who received a doctorate from USC in physical education, went on to earn seven degrees over the years.

The team returns a nucleus of players that led the Eagles to the PacWest title game last March against Point Loma. It was a tough, 98-95 overtime loss.

“We have everybody back that finished the season last year,” said Holmquist, who will coach his 1,320th game at Biola (1,399th overall) when the 2021 season begins. “We’ve added a couple players. We feel like we have a good team, (but) we’ve been beat up and injured a lot lately. We feel like we have a good team. If we can get healthy by the time we play those games.

“Everybody we play has a good team too. It’s going to be a real tough, competitive season and we’re going to have to play well to have a good year.”

The top four returning players who averaged in double figures, 6-7 senior forward Michael Bagatourian (15.7 ppg), 5-9 senior guard Chris Rossow (13.7 ppg), 6-5 junior guard Alex Wright (10.9 ppg) and 6-9 senior forward Jesse Elrod (10.5 ppg), are back after an exciting 2020 season for the Eagles.

Wright and Bagatourian led the team with 252 and 232 rebounds, respectively.

**Alex Wright lays up a shot during practice in the gym at Biola University in La Mirada. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)**

Asked what Holmquist thought the key to this year is, he said, “…I would have said something different two months ago. Right now I’d say just being healthy. We’ve just had a lot of things come up. If we can be healthy where we can get in good shape and go into the season playing good defense which requires some time where everybody can practice well.

“I think we have a good chance to have a good year. We just have some nagging injuries that slow us down a little bit.”

Holmquist, who said in his soft-spoken way, “I really like this team, in terms of the attitudes and cohesiveness and the work ethic and the character of the guys we have. I just think it’s going to be an enjoyable team to coach. I hope we can win some close games. A lot of times, years come down to that. I think we have the kind of people that it could be a really enjoyable year.”

**Solomon Ruddell slams a shot during practice in the gym at Biola University in La Mirada. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)**

Also back for Biola and contributing six points per game was 7-ft. junior forward Solomon Ruddell (29 games) and 6-3” junior guard Whitten Dominguez (31 gms), along with sophomore guard Zanen Zeller coming off the bench in 28 games and contributed with 55 rebounds.

Bagatourian, who hit the PacWest tournament semifinal game-winner with four seconds left last season, knows this years’ team has a real good chance to continue where they left off.

“I’ve loved every part of this,” Bagatourian said. “We’ve grown from an introductory DII team to a real player in the conference. It’s been fun growing with these guys and love this team and current group. It’s our second year together and if everything works out right, we’ll have one more year together.”

Bagatourian and the rest of the team also know how important this season can be for the milestone Holmquist is approaching.

“I mean, what is he, top five in the all-time win list,?” he said.

“It’ll be cool to get him to that 1K mark. We’re looking forward to it. We’ve talked about it as a team. We’ve got it circled on the schedule.

“He’s a great coach. Stats don’t lie. I mean the record doesn’t lie.”

The semifinal win was over longtime rival Azusa Pacific University.

Both universities played multiple crowd-pleasing games over the years and the series became known in the early 2,000’s as “the best small-college rivalry, particularly in basketball.”

Holmquist was Biola’s athletic director for 27 years, with current director Dr. Bethany Miller taking over in 2016.

Miller said of Coach Holmquist: “Dr. Holmquist’s profound impact on this department throughout his 42-plus year career cannot be overstated,” said Miller. “As a coach, and as an athletic director for 27 of the 42-plus years, he has shaped the lives of so many student-athletes - caring passionately for their growth and development not only during their college years, but well into life beyond Biola. He has modeled wise and humble leadership while he continues to have one of the most successful coaching careers in the history of the sport. It has been a gift to lead with him and learn from him in my role as athletic director.”

Holmquist, who was introduced to John Wooden during his 30’s, learned a life-lesson from the Wizard of Westwood.

**Dave Holmquist, right, talks with assistant coach David Cone during practice in the gym at Biola University in La Mirada. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)**

“I would go over to his house and just listen to his stories for hours,” Holmquist said. “I asked him a few different times about how he did so well. He simply said, ‘I had very good players. For me to say anything other than “we” wouldn’t be fair.’”

Among the highlights that Holmquist has accomplished, include the GSAC Coach of the Year honors four times (1996-97, 2001-02, 2003-04 and 2015-16), 29, 20-win seasons, 21 appearances in the NAIA national tournament, induction into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2002 and twice named as NAIA National Coach of the Year.

In only his fourth year of coaching at Biola, Holmquist guided his team to the NAIA championship game in 1982 with a 39-1 record.

“I appreciated that year very much,” Holmquist said. “I didn’t realize how special that group was.”

That team was inducted into the Biola Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.

One of the players on that team, Rich Cundall, said at the ceremony, of Holmquist “….most importantly, you (Holmquist) are able to get the most out of people. You are able to say ‘I believe you can go further than you actually think you can go’, and your players respond. You pay attention to detail.”

Holmquist began his college career as a player at Cypress College, playing under Don Johnson for two years, before transferring to Biola and was a captain in his senior season.

After graduating from Biola, Holmquist became head coach at the age of 24 at Fresno Pacific for the next three seasons.

In 1978, it was the beginning of a long and still-promising career as a Biola Eagle.