Manhattan Beach

Brendon Bain is riding the wave

January 13, 2025 Andy Furman
Kingsborough campus. Photo: Kingsborough Community College
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MANHATTAN BEACH — The distance from Grenada — an island country in the West Indies located in the eastern Caribbean Sea – to Kingsborough Community College is 3,382 km.

That’s 2,101 miles, if you were wondering.

And that’s exactly Brendon Bain’s longest road trip.

Bain is the women’s basketball coach at Kingsborough Community College. He played basketball in Grenada, as well as in England; and moved to the United States in 2005.

“I played in several semi-pro leagues in Arizona,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle, “And then I decided to go back to school.” And that school was Kingsborough. “I had a coach in Grenada that told me I’d make a good coach one day.”

That coach was not entirely correct — Bain has become one remarkable coach. Last season he was named the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Coach of the Year, as voted by the league’s head coaches. He led the Wave to one of its best seasons, reaching the 2024 City University of New York Community College Women’s Basketball Championship Game for the first time since 2020, while securing the No. 3 seed in the NJCAA Region XV Women’s Basketball Championship.

This season just might be better. The Wave has won 17 of their first 18 ballgames, and ranks eighth nationally in the junior college polling.

But it didn’t start that way for Bain. “I’ve been at KCC 14 years,” he said, “and started coaching the guys in the ’08-’09 season. I took over the women’s program in 2017.

“Well, to be quite honest,” he said, “I was asked by the then-athletic director.”

And there is certainly a difference between the two programs.

“The women are a bit more emotional; they will get upset fast. The guys,” he continued, “push just a little harder. You must be mindful with the women as you proceed.”

Bain says his success with the Wave women is a result of the hard work they do each day. “I remind our student-athletes what to do, when, where and why and how to anticipate as well as react.”

It seems to be working. His trio of Endya Greene, Zakieya Williams and Tiona Davis — last year’s Player of the Year in the NJCAA — have led the way.

The 5-10 Greene, a sophomore from Brooklyn’s High School for Law and Technology, is averaging 25 points per game, having scored 36 against Monroe University of The Bronx and 33 against Bunker Hill CC.

Williams is a freshman from Victory Collegiate with a 23.3 points-per-game average. She poured in 33 against Bronx CC and 34 (Dutchess); 32 (Manhattan); and 31 (Suffolk).

Davis, a grad of Brooklyn’s School for Human Rights, has a 12.9 points-per-game average; and hit for a season-high 23 at Northern Essex CC last month. In fact, the 13-member squad is comprised of 10 Brooklynites.

“Kingsborough is a good place both academically, as well as athletically,” the coach, who is working on his doctorate, said. “What we do here,” he said, “is convince that this is a life-changing situation, as well as a good fit; while at the same time trying to create a family atmosphere for athletes.”

Sounds complicated — perhaps — but not as much as Bain’s schedule. He serves as a professor at KCC; teaching physical education, recreational therapy, sports management and several health courses. “That’s why I stress academics,” said the man who graduated from St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn and received his M.A. from LIU. “These athletes – as well as all athletes – will need something to fall back on when their playing days are over.”

Bain reminds of an old headmaster who told him: “Some people have brains; some have brawn; and some left their entire package behind.”

He adds: “You just can’t be one of those kids — you must have the brains. The student,” he says, “comes before the athlete.”

For now, what comes first is the showdown against Hostos CC, the school that gave the Wave their first and only L to date. That was an 84-78 decision back on the 5th of November.

They meet again, Tuesday (Jan. 21) — after a span of three games in five days
commencing on the 14th. “We need to get that monkey off our backs,” Bain said.

It will be a road trip. In The Bronx. This one will only be 28.3 miles — on the Belt Parkway — but the Wave will probably be taking the subway.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] X: @AndyFurmanFSR.





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