Debbie Holcombe
James F. Brynes High School
Impact Statement
Holcombe has coached Brynes to three consecutive state championships during her career.
Biography
An ankle injury as a volleyball player at Southern Wesleyan College added a fifth year to Holcombe’s college career and a second major, physical education, to her business administration major. She’s winning games – and awards – 23 years later.
As a rookie volleyball coach at Anderson T.L. Hanna High School in 1989, her team finished 18-4 and advanced to the second round of the state playoffs, earning Holcombe Region 1-4A Coach of the Year honors. She began the first of two stints at Byrnes in 1991 as softball and volleyball coach.
Her first volleyball team finished 26-6, won Region 2-3A regular season and tournament titles and earned Holcombe a second Region Coach of the Year award, while her softball team finished 22-4. She then spent eight years in college coaching – six at Southern Wesleyan, where her volleyball teams finished 79-31 and her softball teams 109-33-1, advancing to the NAIA national tournament in 1996, and two at Presbyterian College. There, she coached the volleyball team to a 54-20 record and started the softball program, which went 31-16 in its inaugural season.
After returning to Byrnes as softball coach in 2001, Holcombe was named Coach of the Year by the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association and National Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 2005, when she led the Lady Rebels to the 4A state title and the first of three consecutive Upper State crowns. They also won a district title in 2004 and were district runners-up in 2003, 2009 and 2010.
Holcombe also was the South Carolina High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 2008 and a finalist for the National High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 2009 after being named Southern District High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year.
Holcombe continues to coach at Byrnes at this time.
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