Conversation: Fulda’s Brad Holinka has always stayed true to his roots

WORTHINGTON — The gymnasiums and track strips of southwest Minnesota have never been far from Brad Holinka’s rear-view mirror. Nearly five decades after he captained Fulda’s 1975 state-tournament basketball squad to a historic third-place finish, the 1975 Fulda High graduate still patrols the infield as an assistant track coach for the HL-O/Fulda cooperative, guiding a new generation of Raiders toward the state meet.

“I love the competition, even today,” Holinka, 68, said during a recent visit in Worthington, where he and wife Karmel make their home. “It doesn’t matter if it’s junior-high basketball. That still yearns in me—to have that fix.”

Holinka’s fix began on the farms north of Lime Creek, where he and four younger brothers grew up within shouting distance of the Kirchner clan. The Kirchners produced four quarterback brothers—Troy, Todd, Terry and Trent—and Holinka, then a Fulda physical-education instructor, saw leadership potential in the youngest.

“In my phy-ed classes we talk about leadership,” Holinka recalled. “Trent took the bull by the horns. He took ownership in the classroom and in the weight room. He was everything a coach or parent would expect.”

Trent Kirchner parlayed that ethic into a front-office career that culminated this February in a Super Bowl title as Seattle Seahawks vice-president of player personnel. Holinka still trades texts with all four Kirchner brothers, relishing Trent’s tales—like the one about rookie offensive lineman Greg Zabel turning down lucrative NIL money to play alongside his little brother at North Dakota State, then asking Trent how the Minnesota corn crop was faring.

“Does it get any more homegrown than that?” Holinka laughed.

Roots anchor every chapter of Holinka’s story. His father, Chuck, turned a 1957 garage operation into Holinka Distributing before national brewers priced him out; the family auctioned vintage neon signs a few years ago, but each brother kept cherished memorabilia. Mom Trudy hailed from nearby Slayton, the “hated” rival that once employed Holinka as a coach for a single season after 28 years guiding Fulda teams to multiple state tournaments.

“I guess Ty Wacker decided I was going to be a decathlete,” Holinka said of his days at Worthington Community College—now Minnesota West—where he won a regional title and qualified for the national junior-college meet in Texas. At Mankato State he played football only, unwilling to juggle two sports any longer.

The hardwood, however, still glows brightest in Fulda lore. Holinka, Arvid Kramer, twins Tim and Tom Dirks, Kevin Fury, Brian Bunkers and sixth-man Tommy Pittman captured Region 2’s first boys basketball crown in 1975 before falling to St. Paul Mechanic Arts in the state semifinals and claiming third. Holinka swears the Raiders’ competitiveness would translate to today’s three-point era.

“Especially Arvid—he would do anything it took to win,” he said. “That shootout with Jasper, when Steve Prunty scored 42 and Arvid had 47 and 21 rebounds…most of their scoring came in the second half. They were competitors.”

Holinka’s competitive streak now expresses itself through his athletes. This spring he believes HL-O/Fulda will send several track standouts to state, mirroring the expectation he once felt when Trent Kirchner’s Raider football team reached the quarterfinals. Class sizes have shrunk—Fulda’s once-robust 11-man program competes in nine-man today—but the passion remains.

“You coach with passion because you love it,” he said. “Every year it gets a little more worthwhile. We had such great times in high school. I don’t think it could have been any better.”

Holinka’s children—Mari in Fort Collins, Mic teaching fourth grade in Brewster, and Myah married to Blake Schroeder, a member of the Minnesota Vikings’ staff—keep the family spread across the region, but Fulda is never far away. Each state-tournament season he replays 1975 like a favorite film.

“When we beat Fairmont for the region title, it was goosebumps,” he said. “The town went wild. It was like Hoosiers.”

The old ballpark and grandstand are gone, but the memories—and the coaching clipboard—remain. Brad Holinka never really left home; he simply found new ways to keep the lights on for the next generation of Raiders.