Cam Holmes stays home in Goodyear for title drive

By Richard Smith
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Change is the only constant in high level basketball.

Millennium senior Cameron Holmes watched older brother DaRon Holmes struggle for half his senior year at Montverde Academy in Florida after leaving the Tigers. Cameron filed it away and decided to stay with the Tigers as a senior despite being a national top 40 player.

Then the coach he grew up with since third grade, Ty Amundsen, decided to leave for an assistant coaching job at Arizona State one week before school started. Holmes stayed home and is the leader of the No. 8 ranked high school team in the country.

“It was definitely difficult losing my coach. He’s been my coach since third grade. I was a little down but I couldn’t dwell on it too much. He found his new home. I stayed at home,” Holmes said. “When Coach Rich came down and I decided I was going to stay. Coach Rich wants the absolute best for me. He’s pushed the crap out of me this season and pushed me to my full potential.”

Coach Rich is Richard Thornton, a former assistant coach at Bishop Gorman High School and the head of the Vegas Elite Nike EYBL program in the summer.

Millennium hired Thornton in early August and improbably, he finally had a chance to coach a Holmes brother — after years of courting DaRon, then Cameron, for Vegas Elite.

“I had to move here to finally get to coach him,” Thornton said with a smile.

Holmes’ ties to Millennium run deep.

He has watched the program for years, and even went back to learn about the Tigers’ last title. Millennium beat then-4A rival Agua Fria for the 2007-08 championship. Cameron was less than a year old.

“I learned so much from this school, even when Carrick Felix was here. I heard about so much talent that came through this school. Being able to step into that position and take that role over was great. I’ve got a great relationship with the principal, a great relationship with Coach Rich and had a great relationship with Coach Ty. They’re great people all around,” Holmes said.

He grew up on the court with the Tigers’ class of 2025, playing with most of them since third or fourth grade.

For his first three years of high school, Holmes traveled across the country with them and battled for the big trophy at home.

“That was amazing. Those are my best friends. We traveled. We went to the City of Palms and went to Bass Pro — all those tournaments,” Holmes said. Playing with them like that was amazing. My boys Quincy, Kingston and JT all went on to bigger things at the college level. I miss Darius. I miss my guys. It was amazing playing with them.”

DaRon’s senior year informed Cameron when he started looking at what to do his senior season. DaRon had a fun last month or two of his senior season after transferring to Compass Prep in Chandler, but was stuck to the bench at Montverde behind Jalen Duren, who was just named to his first NBA All-Star Team.

“The first thing he told me is that not everything is going to work out. He stayed here at Tiger Nation for three years and didn’t get the state championship. But he tried to reach for a bigger level,” Holmes said. “When he was going trough all that as a senior, I was in seventh grade. I was still a kid. He told me to take my time through the whole process and don’t overthink the decision.”

The Holmes made the decision as a family. Daron recommended that Cameron stay at Millennium and battle through the hard times.

Adan Diggs, a 6-4 sophomore guard ranked in the top 10 nationally for the 2028 class, decided to transfer in from Gilbert Williams Field in June.

“I knew I could find a home somewhere else. That’s life, sometimes. But my mom working here and my grandma working here, I kind of wanted to stay for them and make them proud. Adan came over and helped me out, being a duo. He’s such a great guy. He came in and got right to work,” Holmes said.

Millennium basketball senior and University of Arizona commit Cameron Holmes hugs and high fives fifth-grade students at Mabel Padgett Elementary School in Goodyear Jan. 20. He talked to the students about the importance of academics and balancing multiple things as a student-athlete. (Millennium Basketball on Instagram)

School already in session when Thornton was hired. He could not move to the Valley for two weeks .

Millennium’s players all decided to stay and he got straight to work. Sophomore forward Trey McKinney, a top 75 player in his class, joined Thornton in moving in from Bishop Gorman.

Thornton said Holmes is the focal point, with his energy, work ethic and leadership.

“He’s really easy to work with and a great teammate. He embraced all of the incoming guys and me as a coach,” Thornton said. “He’s still the leader of this team.”

Phoenix Desert Vista transfer forward D.J. Spencer sat out the first half of his junior season and is now eligible.

Thornton has done a great job implementing sets and setting up ways for all five starters to get an opportunity, Holmes said.

“We all want to see each other win. We’re all trying to reach the same level — that’s the NBA of course. All of us can go get a bucket when we want. Now it’s about how we get those bucket, how we are making plays and passing,” Holmes said.

Holmes committed to Arizona in November, choosing the Wildcats over Dayton — DaRon’s school — and North Carolina.

He said coach Tommy Lloyd controls practice and the assistants are locked in.

“It really just came down to my skill set. I can fit in with the team and coaching staff. I felt like Arizona gave me the best option to fit with the team,” Holmes said. “I went down for the visit and watched one of the practices. One of the things that stuck with me is that they don’t condition. They don’t run so the way they condition is to play five-on-five. They simulate game conditions.”

Arizona freshmen Koa Peat and Brayden Burries have played major roles in the Wildcats undefeated season.

But there are talented players throughout the program. Holmes said he wants to work to earn playing time.

Peat graduated from Gilbert Perry after winning the last four big division state titles. Now Arizona has two national MaxPreps teams in the top 10, and they’re Peat’s top two challengers, Phoenix Sunnyslope and Millennium.

Sunnyslope is ranked No. 3 nationally and is lead by junior center Darius Wabbington, senior guard Rider Portela and junior guard Delton Prescott. The Vikings held off the Tigers 61-57 on Jan. 21 and they play again Feb. 10 at Millennium.

“Sunnyslope has a great program and a great coach. That’s a tough environment to play in,” Holmes said. “I feel like we did really well. We were fouling a lot and had some costly of turnovers. We looked at the film and saw so much we could get better at.”

Phoenix St. Mary’s Catholic is an Open Division title dark horse with seven-foot Duke commit Cameron Williams, a top three senior nationally.

The AIA has not boasted this much high level talent in a single season.

“You’ve got Cam over at St. Mary’s. You’ve got Darius and Dalton (at Sunnyslope) and you’ve got me and Adan,” Holmes said. “It’s crazy. It shows how the game is evolving around us. I’m proud of the state of Arizona, reaching new heights every year.”

The competition has never been tougher but Cameron Holmes wants to bring a title back home after near misses by DaRon in 2019 (Gilbert) and 2020 (Ironwood) and his own 5A title game loss in 2023 (to Campo Verde) and a 71-67 loss in a classic Open Division final with Perry in 2025.

He, fellow senior forward Dylan Coday and junior starting point guard Adrian Higuera are the only rotation players back.

“That would mean the world to me. I feel like I’ve been through a lot,” Holmes said. “Me and Dylan have been through a lot. It makes me want to push for it more. I want to be the one holding up that trophy at the end of the year.”

Richard Smith
Senior News Editor | Glendale & West Valley Preps

rsmith@iniusa.org

Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.

An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.

For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.

As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.