Mark Holman

More Than Wins and Losses: Mark Holman’s Two Decades with San Dimas Football

For 11 seasons, Mark Holman stood at the front of the San Dimas High School football program. For more than two decades, however, he was part of its foundation.

Holman resigned as the Saints’ head coach following the 2025 season, closing a tenure defined by consistency: an 87-40 overall record, four league championships, three trips to a CIF-Southern Section semifinal and one CIF-SS championship-game appearance. The Saints never had a losing season during his 11 years at the helm.¹ His final team finished 7-6 and reached the Division 9 semifinals, giving his career an appropriately familiar ending, with San Dimas still playing meaningful football deep into November.

The numbers describe a successful head coach. They only begin to describe Holman’s place in the program.

From assistant coach to program leader

Holman began teaching at San Dimas in 2005 and spent years on the Saints’ staff before becoming head coach. A 2010 staff listing identified him as an assistant under Bill Zernickow, alongside Brian Mustain, Phil Ramirez, Dane Johnson, Jim Espalin and John Strickland.² By the time Holman took charge after the 2014 season, he was not an outsider arriving to remake San Dimas football. He was a longtime member of the school and coaching staff entrusted with continuing an established culture.

That distinction mattered. Zernickow had led San Dimas to CIF-SS championships in 2009 and 2013. Holman inherited a program with expectations, traditions and a distinct identity, then maintained its place among the San Gabriel Valley’s most dependable teams.

His first season immediately validated the transition.

A CIF final in his first season

The 2015 Saints won 10 games and reached the CIF-SS Mid-Valley Division championship game. San Dimas entered the final at 10-3 before falling 20-0 to Sierra Canyon.³ It was Holman’s first year as a head coach and the program’s third CIF-SS final in seven seasons.

The result also placed Holman directly into the history of one of the school’s most successful eras. SmudgePotGame.com describes the 2010s as the strongest decade in San Dimas football history, with Zernickow’s 2013 championship followed by Holman’s 2015 finalist team.⁴

What followed was not a brief surge. Holman’s teams continued to win through changing rosters, league alignments and playoff divisions. MaxPreps’ historical record lists the 2016 Saints at 8-3, including a 3-2 Valle Vista League mark.⁵ Across all 11 seasons, San Dimas never finished below .500.

The 2019 peak

One of Holman’s best teams arrived in 2019. The Saints won 11 games, captured the Valle Vista League championship and advanced to the CIF-SS Division 9 semifinals. The season earned Holman area Coach of the Year recognition.⁶

That team reflected the identity that became associated with San Dimas during his tenure: a physical running game, disciplined execution and a willingness to win without depending on high-volume passing. Even in later years, contemporary coverage continued to describe the Saints by their power running game and strength along the defensive front.⁷

The 2019 run also proved that Holman had done more than preserve the roster and momentum he inherited in 2015. Four seasons into his tenure, he had developed another championship-level group of his own.

Continuity through disruption

Holman’s tenure crossed an unusually difficult period for high school athletics. The COVID-19 pandemic eliminated the scheduled 2020 Smudge Pot game and pushed California’s football season into spring 2021.⁴ The disruption affected practice, player development, scheduling and the ordinary rhythms through which a program sustains itself.

San Dimas nevertheless remained competitive when full fall football returned. The Saints continued to make the postseason and remained a difficult matchup because of an identity that did not change with every graduating class.

That consistency is the most revealing part of the 87-40 record. Holman won 68.5 percent of his games across 11 seasons, and none of those seasons ended with more losses than victories. The Saints were not carried by one exceptional class. They repeatedly rebuilt and returned to contention.

Holman and the Smudge Pot

No San Dimas coaching tenure can be separated from the Smudge Pot rivalry with Bonita.

Holman coached in the game long before taking over the program and was the Saints’ head coach for a particularly consequential stretch of the series. San Dimas defeated Bonita 42-14 in 2016 and 19-8 in 2017, giving Holman consecutive victories and possession of the Smudge Pot.⁸ The 2017 victory remains San Dimas’ most recent win in the rivalry through the end of Holman’s tenure.

The series then turned toward Bonita under veteran coach Steve Bogan. There was no game in 2020 because of the pandemic, and Bonita won each meeting from 2018 through 2025. The 2022 meeting was especially significant because it marked the rivalry’s 50th game. Bonita rallied for a 21-13 victory in a defensive contest that featured seven turnovers.⁹

The rivalry record does not diminish Holman’s broader success, but it is an unavoidable part of an honest retrospective. His tenure coincided with both San Dimas’ last two Smudge Pot victories and Bonita’s longest sustained run in the series. By 2026, Bonita led the rivalry 29-24-1 when the 1999 playoff meeting was included.¹⁰

One final playoff run

The 2025 Saints began 3-0, aided by a forfeit, before losing four of their next five games. Rather than allowing the season to slip away, they recovered and reached the CIF-SS Division 9 semifinals.

The defining moment of that playoff run came against Rowland. San Dimas fell behind 22-0 in the second quarter but rallied for a 24-22 victory.¹¹ The Saints ultimately lost 28-12 to Valley Christian of Cerritos, which went on to win the division championship.

That final season brought Holman’s record to 87-40. It also reinforced a pattern visible throughout his career: his teams were resilient, physical and difficult to eliminate.

A legacy rooted in people

In announcing his resignation, Holman cited personal and family reasons. His farewell letter emphasized that his time at San Dimas had been about more than wins and losses. He wrote about building character, creating a family atmosphere and watching players become leaders.¹

Those words fit a coach whose connection to the school extended well beyond Friday nights. Holman had taught at San Dimas since 2005, served the football program for more than two decades and led it for 11 seasons. His career joined two generations of Saints football, first as part of Zernickow’s staff and then as the program’s leader.

San Dimas has experienced remarkably little head-coaching turnover in the modern era. Zernickow and Holman combined to lead the Saints from 2005 through 2025, winning three CIF-SS championships or finalist appearances between them and establishing one of the San Gabriel Valley’s most stable programs. The school selected Dylan O’Leary to follow Holman, and O’Leary’s first public comments credited his predecessor with building a strong program that the new staff intended to carry forward.¹²

That may be the clearest measure of Holman’s work. He did not leave behind a program searching for an identity. He left behind one that knew exactly what it valued.

Mark Holman at San Dimas, at a glance