Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD announces Chisholm Trail high school’s next head football coach

Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD announced Chisholm Trail’s next head football coach and athletic coordinator on Thursday: Ricklan Holmes.

Holmes spent the 2023 high school football season as an assistant with Hutto high school football. From 2012 to 2022, Holmes was the head coach at his alma mater, Tyler high school, and was honored with the district coach of the year award four times.

“I am excited to join the Ranger Nation and have much confidence in all that we as a family can accomplish at Chisholm Trail high school,” Holmes said in a statement to EMS ISD. “Together, we will be there for and with our students to help them become not only better athletes, but better people.”

With Tyler, Holmes reached the playoffs in eight of 11 seasons and made a deep run to the state semifinal twice. He’ll be taking over a Chisholm Trail team that went 1-9 in 2023 and did not win a district game.

The Chisholm Trail Rangers have never had a winning season since the program’s inception in the 2012 season. In the 2024 season, they’ll make the move from Class 6A to Class 5A D1.

As a high school athlete, he helped advance Tyler to the state semifinal prior to playing at the collegiate level with Oklahoma State. Holmes had short stints in the NFL with the New England Patriots and the Cleveland Browns.

Holmes is a member for the Texas High School Coaches Association Board of Directors. He is taking over for Byron Bode, who spent eight seasons as the Rangers’ head coach.