Andy Holderman set scoring and assist records at Manchester High School before playing his college basketball at Wright State University. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
After years of basketball and moving around, Butler’s Andy Holderman has an unbeaten team that’s catching the attention of area high school basketball fans.
It was nice to see Andy Holderman again Friday night, this time as coach of the Vandalia Butler boys…a basketball ‘lifer’ as player, coach, and dad.
A ‘basketball’ dad. His son, AJ, played for him at Butler after father and son moved from Tipp City to Butler in the summer of 2022.
Holderman’s Aviators are currently 8-0 through the end of December, and will enter January having opened some eyes in area Division III basketball. With their 63-52 win over previously unbeaten Sidney, Julius Rusk, Charles Neely, Tavarcia Green, and Troy Fletcher showed that they can play, and showed that with the new divisional alignments they can be competitive in Division III come tournament time.
Big enough, but not the biggest, after years of living off the legacy of the great Ray Zawadzki teams back in the day, Butler basketball again has a certain sparkle to it. Now with Andy Holderman as its head coach.
You might remember him as a point guard at Wright State in the 90s, who in his best years averaged about 11 points a game for the Raiders.
You might remember him more recently as the girls coach at Tippecanoe, where he achieved conference success, averaging 20 wins per season, but there was always a bigger, deeper team from the GCL that short-fused their post-season tournament hopes.
Then in 2022, Holderman took the job at Butler, where Zawadzki had once set the standards – where basketball has always had an attraction with the community. And so far, so good.
The current Aviators lean on their size and on junior post player Julius Rusk, who’s a linebacker in football, and plays basketball with that same toughness in the low post. But Holderman comes from a background of team basketball, and five different players contributed significantly Friday in their win over Sidney.
“We had a plan for tonight, but then we had to make some adjustments [when the plan wasn’t working],” Holderman smiled, afterwards, talking about their Sidney win. “But we executed down the stretch, we made some big buckets, and we won.”
He coaches in the manner in which he played (he’s all in) at Manchester High School, 35 years ago, where he became that school’s all-time scoring and assists leader before moving on to Wright State.
And he smiled when we hooked up again Friday in Sidney, still the same easy-to-like personality who’d rather talk about basketball…than talk about himself. Not a lot’s changed, except time, schools and uniforms. Andy Holderman is a basketball ‘lifer’, and Butler basketball is better for it – used to it.
With congratulations on their 8-0 start, coach Andy Holderman is this week’s Press Pros ‘Who’s Hot’ honoree.
On behalf of sponsor, the St. Henry Bank, Press Pros is happy to recognize this week’s ‘Who’s Hot’ honoree, coach Andy Holderman, of the Vandalia Butler Aviators.