Last year, the Blue Devils women’s basketball team brought home their first Atlantic Canadian Athletics Association (ACAA) championship in twenty years.
Chris Holland, the new Head Coach of Women’s Basketball, is coming in on a high note. He’s taking over a strong program and is confident in taking his players to the next level.
In Holland’s case, this confidence is not unearned––he’s dedicated his career to basketball. His impressive resume includes two gold medals and a bronze medal from the Basketball Canada National Championships, and a position as head of the Basketball Nova Scotia High Performance Program. He started officiating Usports basketball at age 21––a remarkably young age to do so, by his own admission. However, his experience with coaching started in a much more personal way.
“I started coaching my son’s mini team,” he explains. “And then the next year, because I enjoyed it so much, I coached both my son’s team and then the Midget top team, because it was more competitive.”
From there, Holland spent three years coaching the development teams for Basketball Nova Scotia. In 2014, he brought his very first Basketball Nova Scotia team to nationals, winning bronze. He led the team to victory two more times in 2016 and 2018.
After arriving to campus this past May, Holland wasted no time arranging two events––a summer basketball skills camp for girls aged 10 to 14, and a U Sports team competition which will be held in early January.
This isn’t Holland’s first experience with King’s, either—thanks to his officiating career, he’s visited campus for basketball events every year.
“When I coached minor basketball, I even hosted a tournament here.”
His goal for the coming year will sound familiar to anybody who knows the history of basketball at King’s—Holland is drawing direct inspiration from legendary basketball coach, former Athletics Director and 2024 honorary doctorate recipient Bev Greenlaw.
“My vision for the program is really to try to do what Bev did back in the ‘80s, which was to build a nationally competitive program that brought a lot of accolades to King’s,” he says.
“There’s so much rich [academic] culture and history with King’s College. We want to associate that with excellence in athletics, too.”
As a coach, through the Debra Deane Little and Robert Little Academic Scholarships for Varsity Athletes, Chris Holland will have extra tools in the box as he seeks to blend academic and athletic excellence to build a basketball program of renown.
