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.
He 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.
“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.)
Two Years After Losing Title Chance, Hemlock Ends 2022-23 with Biggest Win
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
March 18, 2023
EAST LANSING – As Regan Finkbeiner exited the court Saturday during the final seconds of Hemlock’s MHSAA Division 3 Final triumph, she was hit with a mix of emotions.
The senior guard let the happy one take over, screaming in celebration to the Huskies student section, which screamed back in acknowledgement.
“I didn’t know if I was crying happy tears or sad tears because I’m done with basketball after this,” Finkbeiner said. “I don’t really know how I was feeling. I was crying because I was happy, crying because I was sad. I was just proud. Just proud of our community that was all there. I’m just glad that I’m ending it on a win.”
Finkbeiner had a game-high 19 points to lead Hemlock to a 59-43 win against Blissfield. It was the first girls basketball title for the Huskies, who were making their first appearance in the Finals.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Hemlock coach Scott Neumeyer said. “I’m just so proud of this team, especially the seniors. I was really happy for how they approached this whole tournament run. We had a brutal, brutal schedule to get here. I’m just happy for how they persevered and how they led this team.”
Prior to this season, Hemlock (26-3) had made just two trips to the Semifinals, the latest cut short before it could start due to COVID-19 after the team had advanced to championship weekend in 2021.
This year’s team took nothing for granted, and Neumeyer praised the business-like approach.
“People offered to do pep assemblies for them, to get them charter buses and limos and all this stuff,” Neumeyer said. “And they were like, ‘Nope, we’re taking the yellow school bus and we’re going down to the Breslin. We’re taking our lunch pail, and we’re going to work.’ And that’s the way I like it.”
That was apparent in the Final against Blissfield, as – outside of foul trouble – the Huskies did the things that win big games.
They forced 17 turnovers while committing just six. They were 22 of 25 from the free throw line, including 15 of 17 in the fourth quarter to salt the game away.
Much of that came from senior guard Chloe Watson, who hit 11 of her 13 free throw attempts in the game, on her way to 18 points.
Watson and Finkbeiner also were able to dribble away much of the fourth quarter as Blissfield was chasing a double-digit deficit.
“Chloe and Regan just played a great game of keep away,” Neumeyer said. “I’m going to record that and show my kids how to keep the ball away from people for about five minutes. They also knocked down free throws, and that’s no accident, because these guys work on free throws like crazy.”
Lauren Borsenik added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Huskies before fouling out early in the fourth quarter. She and her sister Hannah, who had four points and seven rebounds, gave the Huskies a balance that proved too much for Blissfield.
“Their competitiveness – they are warriors on the court, and they play with a little bit of an edge,” Neumeyer said of the Borsenik sisters, both juniors who joined Hemlock this season. “I thought today was a very physical game, and I’m not sure without them that we don’t lose that street fight, if you will, because it was a very physical game.”
The game was close through the first half, as Hemlock held a 25-20 lead at the break. But the Huskies stretched the lead to double digits in the third quarter, and kept Blissfield at arm’s length the rest of the way.
“There was a lot of moments where I thought we were one play away to get back into the game,” Blissfield coach Ryan Gilbert said. “Just a big play away, then get a stop and a score. We were talking about that in the huddle. Then it just kind of slowly mounted. We ran out of gas.”
Julia White led Blissfield in her final game with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Junior guard Avery Collins had 17 points to lead the Royals in scoring.
Blissfield finished 28-2 and was making its first Finals appearance since 1973.
“I couldn’t have asked for a greater senior season,” Blissfield senior forward Sarah Bettis said. “We had kind of been building for this year forever, and people had been telling us that we were going to go far. We didn’t really make it our focus, we just took it one game at a time, but ultimately it led us here. I’m really grateful for this program. It’s meant everything to me since kindergarten. I remember just waiting for the day that I could finally play and put on the uniform. It’s still a little surreal; it doesn’t feel like it should be over.”
PHOTOS (Top) Hemlock's Chloe Watson (11) sends up a jumper with Blissfield's June Miller defending Saturday at Breslin Center. (Middle) Huskies coach Scott Neumeyer holds up the championship trophy to his team and fans. (Below) Watson dribbles away from pressure as Blissfield's Sarah Bettis (10) pursues.