On Wednesday, Jan. 18, Superintendent Dr. Donna Hargens presented Coach Tim Holman (Government and Politics) the ExCEL Award for being an outstanding teacher.

The ExCEL Award is an award recognizing remarkable Excellence in the Classroom and Educational Leadership (ExCEL), the award is sponsored by LG&E KU and WHAS-TV.

Coach Holman became the 16th winner from Manual.

In the 2016-17 school year Coach Holman has demonstrated how excellent leadership has the potential to cross disciplines and be successful.

“I have a lot of [leadership] mentors, going all the way back to high school. I’ve worked with great social studies teachers such as Mrs. Stottman, Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Hunt and tons of others. I also learned a lot working with Coach Stacy Pendelton when I coached girls’ basketball. I feel like I’ve taken a little bit from each one rather than following a specific template,” Holman said.

Coach Holman managed to lead the girls’ varsity cross country team to win the Class 3A State Team Championship and coached both the male and female 3A Individual Champs, Alena Sapienza-Wright (11, YPAS Piano) and Yared Nuguse (12, MST). This success helped earn him the Girls’ Cross-Country Coach of the Year for Kentucky.

“It’s very cool, and most definitely an honor [to win Girls’ Cross-Country Coach of the Year for Kentucky]; but if anything it is indicative of the girl’s performance. That said, it is always humbling to be recognized or acknowledged by your peers,” Holman said.

Along with being recognized for his immaculate coaching success, Coach Holman was awarded The ExCEL Award.

“I was blown away by the ceremony that took place, it was more than great to hear all the great things my colleagues and others spoke about me,” Holman said while reflecting back on the event.

Coach Holman refers to himself as an eternal optimist and believes that this has helped with making an impact on his students and athletes lives.

“I believe in every student’s capacity to be successful. I hope what they understand about me is that I believe in them. If I can do anything, I hope I allow kids to realize their full potential,” Holman said.

It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to influence young kids lives and to help sculpt them into the adults they will soon become. Coach Holman strives to mentor and build lasting relationships with his young mentees.

“Lots of coaches and teachers confuse being liked with being respected. They have to understand that they are coaches and teachers, not friends, not colleagues. You always want an open door and be available to mentor, but you have to be very careful about keeping the relationship as one of coach-competitor and student-teacher, that’s really the key,” Holman said.