MEET THE COACHES

Head Coach: Roger Holmes

Coach Holmes is entering his 31st year coaching. This will be his 16th year at the helm of the Vikings. Coach Holmes has led the Vikings to Sunset League titles, a C.I.F. Finals game, a C.I.F. Semi-Finals game, and into the State Play-Offs (a first in school history). He is most proud, however, of the quality young men that have played in the program over these past 16 years.

Coach Holmes played his high school ball at Fountain Valley High School and earned a scholarship to Long Beach State under legendary coach, Tex Winter. In high school, coach was Sunset League M.V.P., County Player of the Year, and All-C.I.F. The Baron teams that he played on never lost a Sunset League game in four years. He also earned Honorable Mention All American Honors after his senior year.

Coach Holmes is the Department Chair for Special Education at our district’s continuation school, Valley Vista. He has been married to wife Debbie for 25 years and they have two children; Brendan, a senior at MHS, and Kayla who is 13.

Varsity Assistant: Dennis Cowan

Coach Cowan is in his 17th year of teaching and coaching at Marina High School. During that time he has coached golf (3 years), baseball (3 years), track and field (10 years), and basketball for 16 years.

Coach Cowan is a graduate of UCI where he earned a BS in Mathematics and was a 4 year member of the UCI baseball team. Coach Cowan is a Fountain Valley High School graduate where he participated in cross-county, basketball, baseball, and track and field. He was a two time All-League pitcher for the baseball team, and a two time Sunset league champion in the triple-jump. He was named Athlete of the Year during his senior year.

Coach Cowan is currently the Math Department Coordinator at Marina High School. He is married to his wife Joan (for 20years) and they have two daughters: Brittany who is a senior at Marina and Brooke who is a freshman here at Marina.

Varsity Assistant: Eric Edmunds

Coach Edmunds is entering his 4th season at Marina High School. He helped guide three different teams to the CIF Playoffs including the 2004 team to the CIF Finals Game and into the State Playoffs. Coach Edmunds is once again excited to be surrounded by a great group of student-athletes.

Coach Edmunds is a graduate of Fountain Valley High School where he played basketball and volleyball. He was All-League in both sports. Coach Edmunds went on to play basketball at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. Once his playing days were over, Coach Edmunds stepped right into coaching. Before joining Marina, he spent a year at Fountain Valley as an assistant with the varsity program. He also worked a number of basketball camps throughout the country including: Duke, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Notre Dame, and Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp in Las Vegas. He also coached the Los Angeles Rockfish, a high school AAU team.

Coach Edmunds is currently a real estate appraiser and is finishing his BS in Communications at University of Phoenix. He has been married for 7 years to his wife Katrina, a Marina High graduate. They have a 4 year old daughter Hannah and 2 year old son Brady.

Junior Varsity Coach: Erik Peterson

Coach Erik Peterson graduated from Marina HS in 2004 where he played basketball and ran track. During his time there, he earned scholar with distinction honors and an academic scholarship to Arizona State University.

After returning home from Arizona, Coach Peterson transferred to UC Irvine. He is in his last year as a double major in Economics and Sociology there. He plans on entering into graduate school to obtain his teaching credential and Masters in Education.

Coach Peterson began assistant coaching the sophomore team in 2004-2005, and he has continued coaching ever since. He immediately found that coaching is one of his greatest passions. He has coached at both the sophomore and freshmen levels, and he is entering into his first year as Junior Varsity coach. Coach Peterson's favorite aspect of coaching is being able to guide and help young athletes in their pursuit of success both on and off the court.

Sophomore Coach: Aren Baghdassarian

Coach Aren Baghdassarian graduated from Marina High School in 2004 where he played basketball for all four years, making it to C.I.F. Finals his senior year. After high school, Aren went to UC Irvine where he graduated with a degree in Business Economics.

Coach Baghdassarian had previously assisted coaching at the Freshman and Sophomore levels and is entering his fourth year as a coach. His favorite aspect of coaching is being able to teach and prepare his players, to challenge them, and help push them to succeed whether they are in the gym or not.

Freshman Coach: Jason Akiyama

Coach Akiyama (aka Coach Aki) is entering his 4th season of coaching the Marina Vikings. Coach Aki attended Marina High School and graduated in ’04. He played two seasons as a Viking. He is currently attending Long Beach State, getting his BS in business.

Coach Aki started assisting the Freshmen Blue team in ’06 with Coach Peterson. He went on to coach the Sophomore team in ’07. His favorite part of being a coach is teaching young athletes the fundamentals of basketball and teamwork.