Pima women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus earned his third consecutive NJCAA Division II district coach of the year honor as voted by fellow coaches on Monday night at Hickory, N.C., site of the national tournament that starts Tuesday.
Holthaus has seven district coach of the year honors overall. He won the District A Coach of the Year honor in 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2015-16, 2018-19 and 2019-20. He was voted the Southwest District Coach of the Year this season.
Pima is in the NJCAA Division II national tournament, marking the seventh time in Holthaus’ 14 years as the Aztecs’ coach that he has led the program that far. The Aztecs, seeded No. 9, will play No. 8 Illinois Central College in a first round game at 6 p.m., Tucson time, on Tuesday.
1st practice in Hickory as we get ready for Tuesday’s game. Let’s get to work!! #AztecTough #TogetherweRise pic.twitter.com/vF1xYHI3K7
— Pima Women’s Basketball (@PimaWBB) April 18, 2021
The Aztecs made it through a four-month wait because of COVID-19 protocols to finally start playing March 16. That reduced their regular season to only five games. They won the Southwest District championship on the road over Dallas College-Mountain View to reach the national tournament with a 3-3 record.
“I think more than anything (the coach of the year honor) is a reflection of diligence and perseverance through what’s been a very physically and emotionally grinding year,” Holthaus mentioned in a text message. “A lot of effort by many people made all of this possible for our student-athletes to be able to compete. And that to me is what is most important!”‘
Check out our coverage of Pima in the national tournament:
.@PimaWBB and coach @AztecCoachTodd Holthaus begin play Tuesday night in the NJCAA Division II national tournament in North Carolina. Holthaus wants to get "the big one" in his seventh national tournament in 14 years as Pima's coach. The details: https://t.co/VEDOyRAQa2
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) April 19, 2021
The Pima women's basketball team @PimaAthletics is set to play in the national tournament tomorrow. Before they left for North Carolina I was able to talk with Nikya Orange and head coach Todd Holthaus @AztecCoachTodd about Nikya's skills @AllSportsTucson https://t.co/K50FcGgudh
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) April 19, 2021
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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