Kingston High grad Bamba remembered at Utica College
Kingston High graduate who died last year remained a presence for Pioneers during their championship season
After winning its first-ever Empire 8 Conference men’s basketball title last week, Utica College’s players posed with the championship trophy, all wearing their No. 5 warmup shirts and holding up five fingers.
In that moment of celebration for the Pioneers, Chris Bamba — No. 5 — was in their minds and, especially, their hearts.
The 2019 Kingston High graduate, a key contributor in the Tigers’ run to the state final four that year, died in 2020. He had just finished his freshman season at Utica.
The 18-year-old Bamba perished June 23, 2020. He drowned while swimming with friends in Rondout Creek.
“I don’t know if we ever officially came out and said it, but it was the overwhelming theme of the year,” said Utica head coach Sean Coffey about honoring Bamba. Coffey, a New Paltz native, has helmed Utica for five years. “His name and that jersey was around the whole season and it was even more prevalent in that last game.”
Coffey had to break the news of the death to his players. Because of COVID protocols and travel restrictions, some of the teammates couldn’t make the funeral.
“There were a lot of us at the services, probably 70 percent of our players, were there,” Coffey noted. He also remembered the weather.
“It was a really, really rainy day,” he said.
Utica upended top-seeded St. John Fisher 89-65 for the Empire 8 title on April 11. Ironically, it was Utica’s fifth attempt at winning the crown.
“What was really surreal was that it was pouring when we were about to start this title game,” Coffey said. “It was kind of like a ‘He’s here’ type of thing. We hadn’t seen rain like that maybe since his services.”
When the school year began, a tribute was held on Bamba’s
birthday, Aug. 27, with the release of balloons in front of the college’s athletic center. Many members of the campus community attended the event.
“He was just an awesome kid,” Coffey said. “He was only around for a semester and-a-half and how beloved he was by so many people well outside of our basketball program.”
Bamba’s number is on the Clark Gymnasium wall. Along with the warmup shirts, the No. 5 was worn on the sleeve of the team jerseys and on travel gear.
“Pretty much everything we wore this year had the 5 on it,” said Coffey. The hashtag “Forever5” was also prevalent.
“What a charismatic kid, a big smile and he was just scratching the surface of his potentia,” Coffey said. “We were really excited for him. He was taking to the coaching. He was improving so much.
“In his last practice with us, he caught the ball in the corner, went baseline and just dunked it on two guys. The whole gym went crazy. Everyone was happy for him. He was just starting to get it. He just had so much more to do.”
An honor student at Kingston, Bamba had a 4.0 grade point average in his first semester at Utica and a 3.8 in the second.
Last Friday, Utica started considering designs for the team’s championship rings. Prominent in the design will be a 5 and Bamba’s name.