March 28, 2024

Baxter’s Damman to dual sport at Simpson

Baxter’s Cole Damman will attempt to do two sports at Simpson College for a year. Then decide from there which sport he will pursue full time the rest of his collegiate career.

Damman is headed to Simpson to play football and basketball. He just couldn’t choose one over the other yet.

“It was really hard for me to pick one over the other. I plan to do so, however, after my freshman year is completed,” Damman said. “I have a really good relationship with both coaches who recruited me and I didn’t want to say I was going to their school but not give one of those guys a shot to coach me. I think I will learn a lot from both coaches and that is what ultimately made me commit to doing both.”

The two coaches Damman is referring to are Simpson head football coach Matt Jeter and Simpson head men’s basketball coach Brad Bjorkgren.

Jeter has guided the Storm to records of 5-5, 7-3 and 5-5 in his three years in Indianola. Simpson lost 15 seniors to graduation this past season.

Bjorkgren has been at Simpson for five years and he’s led the Storm to at least 13 years during that stretch for the first time since 1994-99. He’s been 16-10 twice. Last year’s roster included six seniors.

“I ultimately chose Simpson because when I was on my visits the people I met still reach out and ask how I’m doing,” Damman said. “The atmosphere was just the right choice for me, and I thought it was the best decision for me as a student-athlete. I also have a cousin that attends there right now and plays on the softball team and a few of my good friends from AAU clubs and other teams committed there. I guess the connections on the team and the friends going there made it the right choice for me.”

Damman’s first choice of sport in college was basketball for a long time. But the number of opportunities just weren’t there until this past season. And after a strong senior season on the gridiron, football in college became a reality, too.

His senior year started off with a strong football season. For the Bolts, he threw for 1,746 yards and 29 touchdowns and rushed for 1,206 yards and 22 TDs as the team’s starting quarterback. Defensively, he also had 91.5 tackles, one sack, one interception and two fumble recoveries, earning him third-team all-state honors in 8-Man.

His junior season was cut short because of an injury but he finished with 330 passing yards, 169 rushing yards and five total TDs on offense and 14 tackles and one sack on defense.

As a sophomore, he played wide receiver and had 157 rushing yards as well as 34 catches for 367 yards and eight TDs. He had 44.5 tackles and two picks on defense.

Damman said Simpson recruited him as a wide receiver but his recruiter told him he thinks the Baxter standout can play up to eight different positions. Damman said he is keeping an open mind to the position he plays at the next level.

Baxter football coach Rob Luther thinks he fits best at strong safety or slot corner at the next level but could see him at wide receiver, too.

“He’s versatile on the football field,” Luther said. “He will be undersized wherever he plays, but he loves to hit and would be a great strong safety. He’s an athlete and those guys usually find somewhere to play pretty quickly.”

On the basketball floor, Damman broke out his senior season. He averaged 8, 12.4 and 12.4 points per game in his first three seasons of high school but scored 21.4 points as a senior for the Bolts, earning third-team all-state honors in Class 1A.

As a senior, he also averaged 3.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.4 steals per game while making a school-record 66 3-pointers. The 21.6 points per game, 475 total points, 53 total steals and 99 made free throws also were school records for a season.

Damman also set Bolts’ career records with 200 made 3-pointers, 331 assists and 165 steals.

“His stats speak for themselves,” Baxter head boys’ basketball coach Zach Hasselbrink said. “He’s always been great for us. He continued to get better each year and he’ll continue to grow in college. Cole plays hard at both ends, is a scrappy player and has great range.”

Damman said seven to 10 schools reached out to him for football. He didn’t get as much interest in basketball as he had hoped. But Simpson will give him the opportunity to do both for a year and allow Damman to figure out where he fits best.

“It was explained by both coaches before I committed that I would play every game for the football team then jump to basketball,” Damman said. “I am going to miss about four weeks of basketball season which could be hard to overcome so I will have to work at it no doubt if I want to compete at the level I want to.”

Hasselbrink said he and Damman had a few conversations about his future during this past year’s basketball season. To Hasselbrink, playing two sports at that level is unfathomable, but if anyone can do it, Damman is one of them.

“Cole will work his tail off, that I know,” Hasselbrink said. “It’ll be demanding. But because Cole will want to work so hard at both, I think it’s going to be really hard to do.”

Luther agrees with Hasselbrink that playing two sports won’t be easy.

“It’s really hard to do both,” Luther said. “Coaches want kids to be committed. But I’m glad he is still giving both a chance to see what works best for him. It will be a grind and it will stink for a while. After that first year, he’ll sit down with both coaches and evaluate where he is at.”

Damman plans to major in elementary education.