Powerful Post Pair Fueling Columbia Central's Postseason Hopes

By Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com

February 25, 2022

BROOKLYN – The gymnasium at Brooklyn Columbia Central High School has been the site of some intense battles among two high-energy post players for the past three years. But only a handful of people have been in attendance to watch.

That’s because most of them have come during the Golden Eagles’ practices. 

It is at those practices, run by Columbia Central coach Codi Cole, where 6-foot-2 junior Zoie Bamm and 6-3 senior Tadessa Brown have scrapped, battled, and molded themselves into future Division I college basketball players.

“It doesn’t do me a lot of good to practice and post up against someone 5-2,” Brown said. “Zoie and I have had some great battles. I love going against her. She’s strong and has some muscle. We battle hard, usually until the coach makes us stop.”

Those battles have launched some great success for Columbia Central, which clinched its fourth-consecutive Lenawee County Athletic Association championship Thursday with a win over Dundee. The Golden Eagles had a streak of 37 straight conference wins snapped earlier this season but have rebounded nicely and are eying a deep tournament run.

Cole is a basketball junkie who graduated from East Jackson in 2003. He was coaching travel basketball through the Michigan Sports Facility in Jackson, where he works, when he applied and landed the Columbia Central job.

“One of the parents encouraged me to apply,” Cole said. “I wasn’t their first or second choice and when I got the job. I was told they wanted someone with more varsity experience.”

It didn’t take long for Cole to bring a championship attitude to the program.

CC went 10-11 in his first season in 2017-18. Since then, however, it’s been championship after championship. Over the last four years, the Golden Eagles have gone 15-5, 20-3, 16-4 and they are 14-4 this year. In the LCAA, Columbia Central is 49-2 since the start of the 2018-19 season. 

“I’m blessed to be at a school where there are some people obsessed with basketball,” Cole said. 

Brooklyn Columbia Central basketballHe has as familiar face on his bench – his high school coach Jim Nelson has been an assistant the last four years. Nelson has coached basketball for 40 years in the Jackson area.

“When I came to coach, I asked him to coach with me,” Cole said. “It’s great having him with me.”

This season some of the younger players on the team had to grow up faster than expected. The team lacked experience other than Bamm and Brown, and Bamm was slowed at the start due to an injury.

“We played (Parma) Western in the first game and lost and scored 17 points,” Cole said. “Frankly, that’s not what we are used to. We didn’t have Zoie and had a lot of inexperience. It took a second to get going with the new crew. There were some struggles.”

After the season-opening loss, Columbia Central won three games, then ran into Onsted. The Wildcats ended up winning, 46-34.

“That was a big eye-opener for us,” Cole said. “After that, we started rolling.”

Since the Onsted loss, Columbia Central has lost only to 2021 Division 3 champion Grass Lake and Division 1 Temperance Bedford.

“I’d say we came together as a team,” Bamm said. “We were young coming into the season, and we needed to make things work. I expected us to develop as the season went on.”

Bamm eased into the season. She tore her ACL last April and spent the entire offseason rehabilitating her knee. When this season started, she didn’t get the approval from her surgeon to play right away.

Brooklyn Columbia Central basketball“He didn’t think I was ready,” Bamm said. “He wanted me to keep practicing.”

After the opening-game loss, however, Bamm returned to the court. At first her minutes were limited, but that didn’t last long. Now her and Brown both average about 14 points a game. In Thursday’s win over Dundee, Bamm had 25 points, 19 rebounds and nine blocks in one of her best games of the season. Junior Anna McCollum leads the team in 3-pointers and is third on the team in scoring. 

“There is always room to grow,” Brown said. “There’s so much more we can do to get better. We want to keep playing for as long as we can.”

Besides the practice battles between Brown and Bamm, the Golden Eagles also spend time watching film to get better.

“We watch a lot of film,” Brown said. “I watch film with Coach. We are always looking for things that can make us better. We try and change the small things, especially with the younger girls on the team.”

Brown, the only senior, and Bamm, started playing together when Brown was in eighth grade on a travel team.

“We became friends even then,” Bamm said. “We’ve been training together a long time.”

Brown said the duo has enjoyed their practice battles. 

“She’s so great to practice with,” Brown said. “She’s going to be a Division I player too.”

Brown had some college offers, but she couldn’t quite find the right fit. That’s when she assembled some of her film and sent an email to Division I coaches around the country.

“Clemson was one of the schools that contacted me back,” she said. “We started communicating and I made an unofficial, virtual visit and I loved the campus and everyone there. It is such a family atmosphere there. They accept you for who you are, and their coaches are amazing. I cannot wait to get my career started there.”

Before college, however, Columbia Central has more work to do. The Golden Eagles open the postseason as the No. 2 seed in a Division 3 District that includes Big 8 Conference champion Jonesville. They have a final regular-season game tonight to try and wrap up a 13-1 LCAA campaign.

“The other day in practice I started looking around and thought we only have a few practices left,” Brown said. “It was truly like, ‘Where did the time go?’ moment. On senior night, I realized this was the last time I am going to play in this gym. It’s so surreal. I’m happy with everything that happened here.”

Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Tadessa Brown, right, and Zoie Bamm take a photo together during Brown’s college signing event. (Middle) Bamm and Brown’s friendship goes back to middle school. (Below) Bamm calls for the ball during a game against Hudson. (Photos courtesy of Amanda Bamm.)

Future Teammates Crow, Kamin to Face Off 1 Last Time

By John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com

March 22, 2021

GLADSTONE — During the past four years, Escanaba’s Nicole Kamin and Gladstone’s Megan Crow have been teammates on the basketball court – except for high school games.

The senior standouts have played on the same travel team since eighth grade and will be teammates at Grand Valley State University next season.

They will be on opposing teams one more time tonight when Escanaba visits Gladstone for a Division 2 District opener at 7 p.m.

“I’d be very happy with that,” Crow said of facing off against Kamin, after Gladstone’s recent 57-40 loss to the Eskymos. “This would be our last time playing against each other. I think it’d be kind of fun.”

This will be the third meeting between the teams this season. The Eskymos also won 64-63 at home Feb. 15.

“When we’re shooting free throws, we sometimes throw a little jab in there,” said Kamin. “We have fun, although we get pretty intense when we have to. Once Meg gets the ball inside, there’s no stopping her. I’m not one who should be guarding a post player, but I have to do it. I try to keep the ball from getting to her. This will be the last time we play as opponents, which will be a relief because we won't have to play against each other anymore.”

Crow is aware of the challenges Kamin provides for opposing teams.

Escanaba/Gladstone girls basketball 2"I don’t guard Nicole, but once she gets past the free throw line, you need help right away,” she said. “She’s hard to defend. Her penetration makes it very challenging.”

Both joined the 1,000-point club recently. Kamin scored her 1,000th career point in this season’s first meeting between the teams, and Crow reached a thousand in a 59-36 triumph over Manistique at home March 11.

Kamin usually plays guard, but was the team's center in a 60-47 victory at Bark River-Harris on Friday. She averages 24 points and nine rebounds a game and figures to be more of a forward at Grand Valley.

Crow recorded a triple-double (16 points, 18 rebounds and 12 blocked shots) in the Braves' 43-24 regular season-ending victory at Marquette on Wednesday.

She expects to be a post player for the Lakers.

"That will be very exciting," said Crow. "Nicole makes good passes, and I make good kick-outs. Playing at the post would give me more freedom. I would be able to post up more and drive to the basket."

Kamin, like Crow, knows she has some work to do prior to her collegiate career.

"I'm more of a driver," she said. "I need to work on my shooting a little."

Kamin scored 21 points in Thursday's 71-27 rout of Kingsford, then often distributed the ball and hit 14 at BR-H.

Esky finished its regular season at 10-4 and Gladstone is 8-5 going into the postseason.

Both like to go to the Northern Lights YMCA in Escanaba and play ball with other girls.

"I also like to work out at home and go to the shooting range in my spare time," said Crow.

Kamin played on two Division 2 championship softball teams at Escanaba before last season was cancelled due to COVID-19. She was a back-up pitcher to current University of Wisconsin hurler Gabi Salo, but figures to play first base for the Eskymos this spring.

John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

PHOTOS: (Top) Gladstone’s Megan Crow and Escanaba’s Nicole Kamin both have been standouts in the Great Northern Conference and will be teammates at the collegiate level. (Middle) Kamin and Crow face off last season. (Photos courtesy of the Escanaba Daily Press.)