NVC's Jamison off to Bellarmine University, Tiongco to Pacific Union College
1st photo: Rose Jamison, left, and Kamilah Tiongco are shown on Saturday at Napa Valley College.
Photos by Marty James
By MARTY JAMES
There's so much that Rose Jamison and Kamilah Tiongco have in common.
They were starters and captains as sophomores on the Napa Valley College women's basketball team during the 2024-25 season.
They both graduated, earning AA degrees, earlier this year.
They are both transferring on to four-year schools – Jamison to Bellarmine University of Louisville, Kentucky, where she will play for the NCAA-Division I Knights on a full-ride athletic scholarship, and Tiongco to Pacific Union College of Angwin, where she will play for the NAIA Pioneers starting with the 2026-27 season, after she uses a medical redshirt year.
On Saturday afternoon, they were together once more, seated at a table in the NVC gymnasium, as head coach Paul DeBolt offered his congratulations to them, speaking about all the successes they attained as student athletes during their time with the Storm.
"We're here to celebrate our two sophomores, who are just true examples of what you want from a student-athlete," DeBolt said, with family, college staff and friends looking on. "They took basketball really seriously, which makes their coaches happy. It was a pleasure to coach both of them."
It was a signing and recognition ceremony, with awards being presented to each player, as well to others in the program.
"It's pretty amazing when you have a student-athlete, like Rose and Kamilah, to where you can see the program just change. All of a sudden, people want to come here. They want to play here. They realize what it is we're actually doing here," said DeBolt.
With DeBolt leading the program, Napa Valley has made three straight trips to the California Community College Athletic Association-Northern California Regional Championships. Last year's team finished in second place in the Bay Valley Conference and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Chabot College, 76-66, in Hayward.
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association honored Napa Valley for its work in the classroom. The Storm, carrying one of the highest team grade point averages in the country, earned a spot on the 2024-25 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls, as announced by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, in a report, at wbca.org.
Napa Valley, with its 3.295 GPA, is tied for 12th nationally among community college teams with Cypress College. NVC is also tied for second among teams in the state with Cypress in the two-year college division.
"What puts you a cut above as a basketball player, in any basketball program, is when a coach never has to worry about whether you're going to be eligible, or what your mindset is. So, we try to recruit players here who have academic goals and career goals," said DeBolt.
Napa Valley (17-12 overall, 13-3 Bay Valley Conference) was also named among "Best of the Rest" in the final California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association State Top-25 Rankings, as announced by the California Community College Athletic Association, in a report, at www.cccaasports.org, on March 19.
Jamison, a 6-foot guard-forward, ends her outstanding NVC career with three all-time school scoring records:
* Points in a single game: 45-point game, Feb. 20 against Yuba College-Marysville, on 17-of-31 shooting from the floor, 5-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, 6-of-7 from the free-throw line, along with 13 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
* Points in a single season: 615.
* Points in a career: 1,112.
"We needed a player like Rose," said DeBolt. "One of the things that me and my coaching staff pride ourselves in is taking a player like Rose and taking her game and expanding it, making it better and challenging her to play at all three levels. She's one of the best mid-range players I've ever coached. She's getting better and better and better."
Jamison, 21, accepted an offer in late May to attend Bellarmine University, which plays in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Also, in the league is Florida Gulf Coast University, Central Arkansas, Lipscomb, Eastern Kentucky University, Stetson, North Alabama, Jacksonville, West Georgia, Austin Peay, Queens and North Florida.
She becomes the first NVC women's player to receive a Division-I basketball scholarship.
"It means a lot. Just all the hard work that I put in, facing all the adversity that I face, the injuries," said Jamison. "It just comes to show like hard work can really just get you wherever you want to go in life. It feels good.
"I'm very proud. I put a lot of work in the classroom, so it's good that it paid off. It was a big factor in me getting the scholarship that I had to Bellarmine University."
Jamison was in the NVC program for three years. She earned AA degrees in kinesiology and criminal justice.
"I'm definitely very, very happy that I chose Napa. I feel like this is where I was meant to be. So, very happy, very blessed, that this is the journey that I was able to take part in," said Jamison.
Jamison ranked very highly in the state in several statistical categories:
* Third in points per game.
* Sixth in points.
* Seventh in blocks.
* 10th in total rebounds.
* 14th in rebounds per game.
* 15th in assists.
Tiongco is getting a basketball scholarship to play at Pacific Union College, located in Angwin. The Pioneers play in the California Pacific Conference, which also has California Maritime (Vallejo), Northern New Mexico College, Simpson University (Redding), Stanton University (Anaheim) and Westcliff University (Irvine).
"I know you're going to do well there," said DeBolt.
Tiongco had surgery for a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament in March. She suffered the injury to her left knee in a game against Laney College-Oakland on Dec. 17.
"We really missed Kamilah," said DeBolt. "I want to tell you how much I appreciate you, just giving us a chance.
"We did some things this year that Napa hadn't done in a long time. We accomplished some things this year, and you're one of the ones who helped us, where we feel that this women's basketball program should be, and that is challenging for a conference championship, playing good, competitive basketball, and sending people on to four-year schools.
"She was always at practice, working hard. A very team-oriented player."
Tiongco, 19, earned an AA degree in transfer studies.
Jamison heads to Bellarmine University
Jamison was sensational this past year for the Storm, averaging 22.0 points per game on 46.0 percent shooting from the floor, 28.4 percent shooting from 3-point distance, and 73.8 percent from the free-throw line. She also averaged 11.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.9 blocks per game.
She was named to the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association 2024-25 All-State team. She was selected third-team All-State.
Jamison was named All-Bay Valley Conference.
"Being here with Rose was really great," said Tiongco. "We only had one year to play together, and I wasn't able to play my full year with her, but it was really great having her as a teammate and having her around as another captain. Having her here helped me develop as a person as well as a leader, just because she showed so much leadership."
Jamison reached the 1,000-point career scoring mark in Napa Valley's 78-41 win over Los Medanos College-Pittsburg on Feb. 5.
"What I really wanted to focus on this last year was to just be the best person that I could be as a player, on the court and off the court, whether that be in school, whether that be relationships with my teammates, with my family," she said. "I'm just very blessed and very happy to be able to have all these achievements."
She was also named to the Bay Valley's All-Academic team.
"Rose never stopped believing in herself, which I think is so admirable. I want to encourage you to just keep thinking that the sky's the limit," said DeBolt.
She scored 30 or more points in five games this past season.
Jamison was a first-team All-Bay Valley Conference selection as a freshman, as she averaged 15.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, during the 2022-23 season.
She was also named to the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association 2022-23 All-Academic Team.
Jamison had surgery on her left knee on Aug. 16, 2023. She was granted a medical redshirt after being limited to playing in only three games during the 2023-24 season.
"Physically, I've gotten a lot stronger. I focused on a lot of rehab, strengthening, conditioning," she said. "Mentally, I've just become so much stronger. Because, when you get injured, it can mentally be really, really draining. A lot of people might quit. They might not even keep continuing playing. But for me, I took the other route. I became more stronger mentally, and took the next steps and was able to perform well."
Jamison signed her national letter-of-intent with Bellarmine earlier in the summer.
In announcing Jamison's signing, Bellarmine University head coach Monique Reid, said, in a report, at athletics.bellarmine.edu, on July 2:
"Rose is a versatile scorer who can produce from multiple positions on the floor. She's long, athletic and brings a tough, competitive mindset. Her JUCO experience has prepared her well, and we expect her to step into a leadership role right away. Rose is a high-level player, and I anticipate she'll make an immediate impact on our program."
Jamison, who is from Fairfield, plans to major in integrated studies.
She spent 3 ½ weeks at Bellarmine this summer, joining the team for workouts and conditioning. She also took a summer school class.
"Personally, I just want to grow and challenge myself, because it's a whole different level of basketball that I've never been at before. I just want absorb as much as I can from the people that are going to be coaching me," said Jamison.
Jamison graduated from Rodriguez High School-Fairfield in 2022.
Tiongco heads to Pacific Union College
Tiongco, playing the point guard position, was limited to 12 games this past year for NVC due to injury. She averaged 8.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.
She started off the season scoring in double figures in four straight games – 12 points against College of the Redwoods-Eureka, 15 points against Lassen College-Susanville, 16 points against Sacramento City College, 11 points against Folsom Lake College.
"She took on a lot of responsibility with the ball. She had a great freshman year. She came a long way," said DeBolt.
As a freshman, Tiongco averaged 6.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
She stayed connected to the program when she was out injured.
"Showing her character, she never missed anything. Never missed a practice, never missed a treatment from the athletic trainers," said DeBolt.
Tiongco had surgery on March 7.
"My knee is still pretty weak, but we're getting there. It's getting stronger every day," said Tiongco. "I'm very confident in myself and in getting back."
Tiongco plans to major in health sciences at Pacific Union.
She graduated from Pinole Valley High School in 2023.
Also, on hand for the NVC program's ceremony were:
* Jazmine Fontilla, who had a standout freshman season this past year for the Storm, averaging 11.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 2.4 steals per game at point guard.
"She carried us a lot of the year in handling ball and getting the ball up the floor, playing against quicker people," said DeBolt. "We're changing kind of where she plays to get her the ball a little more. We're looking for big things out of (Fontilla) this year."
* Bella Merritt, who averaged 4.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game during the 2023-24 season.
*Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.