Local Sports News

Former Southwestern Rebels Boys Basketball Coach Jerry Bomholt Announces He Will Return to Jay County High School to Coach the Boys Basketball Team.

In a special meeting Monday night, Jay School Board unanimously approved Coach Jerry Bomholt as the next head coach for the Boys Basketball Program. “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 won the job over three other applicants, with Athletic Director Steve Boozier saying, “By far had the most experience although it was a very experienced field. 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 stint 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 will enter his 40th year coaching with a 549-344 record, which is ninth among active coaches and 23rd all time for career victories. He will take over 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.