Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.
 
KALAMAZOO, MI – Kalamazoo has its first-ever semi-professional basketball team for women.
 
The Kalamazoo Blaze has become the newest team in the 16-member, New Jersey-based Women’s American Basketball Association.
 
“It’s really for girls who have finished their college careers and don’t have anything to do next and who want to compete at that level,” says Felicia Nikia Thomas, founder and head coach of the Kalamazoo Blaze.
 
CourtesyFelicia Nokia Thomas is owner and head coach of the Kalamazoo Blaze semi-pro women’s basketball team.The team is composed primarily of young women who are now living in the Kalamazoo area.
 
“We have three or four that graduated from Kalamazoo Valley Community College,” Thomas says. “I have one from Ferris State, one from Wayne State as well as Albion College, and Lawrence Tech University.”
 
All have full-time jobs, “They’re all pretty much full-time workers in various fields,” she says. “Some of them have children. They’re your typical, average, young women who graduated college and are kind of living life now.”
 
Thomas, 34, will soon head into her eighth season of coaching women’s basketball at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, the last four as head coach. Her assistant coach at KVCC, Nancy Willmore, joins her as assistant coach for the Blaze.
 
Herb ToddHead Coach Felicia Nokia Thomas huddles with her team during a recent game in Kalamazoo.With the Blaze, Thomas says she only has one player who has not played at the college level.
 
“We prefer to have players with college experience,” she says. “But, being a college coach myself, I know that there are so many girls who just don’t have that opportunity, but can still compete. So while it’s preferred that they have some college experience, we are open to anyone trying out as long as they can compete at a high level.”


Women's American Basketball Association
 
The Women’s American Basketball Association’s season starts during the first week of July and ends with playoffs and a championship game in early October. Home games for the Kalamazoo Blaze are being played in the gymnasium of the Douglass Community Association at 1000 W. Paterson St.
 
Its players travel as far as St. Louis to play Midwest regional rivals, but its league championship, if they get that far, would take them to Greensboro, North Carolina.
 
“We are a women’s professional basketball league,” says Marsha Blount, founder, president and chief executive officer of the Women’s American Basketball Association. “We’ve been in existence since 2017 and our goal is to continue to provide opportunities for players post-college.”
 
Herb ToddSierra James, co-caption of the Kalamazoo Blaze, makes a move during a recent game played in the gymnasium of Kalamazoo’s Douglass Community Association.A high school basketball standout during the 1980s, Blount is in her 20th year as owner of the New Jersey Express men’s professional basketball team, part of the American Basketball Association. She says there are not enough opportunities for talented women to play in the WNBA (The Women’s National Basketball Association). While her association is not trying to compete with the WNBA, she says it is trying to offer more opportunities to play.
 
“We are currently 16 active teams,” Blount says. “We have four additional teams that will be entering and competing next season. We may get up to as many as 24 teams.”
 
Based in Denville, New Jersey, the league has teams as far south as Gastonia, North Carolina, and as far north as Lewiston, Maine. It has teams in Grand Rapids and St. Louis, with Kalamazoo being its westernmost team. Each team generally has between 10 and 15 players.
 
Herb ToddBrenda Davis, co-captain on the Kalamazoo Blaze, brings the ball upcourt during a recent game at the Douglass Community Association gymnasium.“We are not the WNBA but we ultimately would love to be a feeding system for them, almost like a women’s G League,” she says, referring to the development league that sends male players to the National Basketball Association. She says there are talented women who “just didn’t get that opportunity (to make it to the WNBA) or didn’t get the same visibility that some of their teammates had.”
 
The Women’s American Basketball Association also hopes to help interested players land professional contracts overseas. And provide opportunities for people who want to coach.
 
“Ideally that’s what the league is looking to do more of, moving forward,” Thomas says. “It’s kind of a bridge between college athletes and the WNBA — that middle ground where girls who can compete at a high level and want to continue, this is a league for them.”
 
The league ended its last season with about 220 players, women from their early 20s to their mid-30s.


Women's basketball is growing and thriving
 
The Kalamazoo team is owned by Thomas, a Kalamazoo native who played basketball for Wayne State University after graduating from Kalamazoo Central High School in 2008. Her college playing career ended in 2011 but she subsequently played semi-pro ball. That segued into coaching and led her to what is now her full-time regular job coaching at KVCC. She says the Kalamazoo Blaze playing season jives well with her work at the community college, however. The pre-season for KVCC begins in September and its games do not begin until mid-October.
 
It also doesn’t interfere with her raising her 10-year-old niece, Naviah.
 
Herb ToddSierra James makes a quick move during a recent game of the Kalamazoo Blaze.While travel and some other expenses are being covered, Blaze players are not yet being paid to play. That is expected as the team accumulates more sponsorships, Thomas says. Those interested in investing may contact the team at 269-400-0388 or via thekalamazooblaze@gmail.com. The team may be seen on Instagram at @thekalamazooblaze. 
 
“I feel so blessed and grateful to have the group of girls that I have for this year,” Thomas says. “I can’t tell you how many times they’re asking me, ‘What can I do?’ or ‘What can I pay for?’ or ‘How can I help?’ They are just along for the ride. They are genuinely grateful for the opportunity to just play and compete. And that’s what it’s all about.”
  
Thomas says she has recruited players from open gym sessions in the area, including those at The Point Community Center on 10th Street. It has become the practice location for the team.
 
Thomas and Blount are excited about the growth of women’s basketball nationwide, windswept this year by players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who are now rookies in the WNBA.
 
Herb ToddHead Coach Felicia Nikia Thomas says she started the Kalamazoo Blaze in order to give women players more opportunities to keep playing.“That played a major part in my decision to do this,” Thomas says. “We have the Caitlin Clark effect (and) the Angel Reese effect, where there’s so many eyes on women’s basketball right now, there are people who didn’t naturally have any interest in women’s basketball. Now they can’t deny the excitement that is being built around it.”
 
Realizing that others have tried to start sports leagues in mid-sized cities but failed, including a semi-pro team she once played for (The Grand Rapids Galaxy), Thomas says she does not know what hasn’t worked for other organizations. But she is working to learn all she can.
 
“One thing that I’ve tried to keep in mind as I’m getting started is: start small and solid,” she says. “I’ve played in organizations where in our first season we tried to get into arenas and sell out arenas. They were just going too big, too fast. My biggest goal is to just maintain. I want us to be talking about this again in 10 years — that we’re still here and just growing organically as opposed to pushing the envelope so fast.”
 
Another opportunity


Thomas is also the owner of Palm Season Lifestyle, a four-year-old online apparel business that primarily promotes healthy living and tries to help people focus on living with a purpose. PALM stands for Purpose, Alignment, Longevity, and Mindset. 


She expects to use it to stimulate more interest in healthy activities among young people. The project is launching this weekend with a free basketball skills clinic for girls from grades five through eight. Scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Douglass Community Association, it is to include such things as shooting and ball-handling.

Herb ToddThe Kalamazoo Blaze is the newest entry in a 16-team, New Jersey-based, semi-professional women’s basketball league.