Napa Valley College standout Cameron Joseph to move onto next level, play at University of Redlands after signing National Letter of Intent
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It doesn’t matter how you make it to the next level—some move on right away. But one of the most underrated ways to move on is to go the junior college route.
This was the path for Napa Valley College sophomore Cameron Joseph got him to the next level to continue playing basketball.
On Monday afternoon at Napa Valley College, the Storm standout forward signed to play for the University of Redlands in Southern California. When he gets to Redlands, he plans to major in business administration. He was joined by his parents Grady and Lisa at the ceremony as well as teammates.
“I’m interested in pursuing sports business,” Joseph said. “Whether it’s working with like a front office or a brand once I put the ball down. So ultimately, I felt Business Administration kind of sets me up for that.”
He’ll also be graduating next week from NVC. Due to his hard work in the classroom and on the court, this opportunity came about.
As a member of the Storms basketball program this last season, Joseph averaged 15.6 points per game and shot 36.6% from the field.
One of the reasons Joseph could score plenty every game was that he’s simply hard to match up with. Being 6-foot-4, he is a combo guard and often brought the ball up the court for the Storm. He created issues because putting a guard on him meant he could shoot over them. But if you put a big on him, he has the speed to get to the rack that way.
“Cam’s a 6’4” combo guard is a tough matchup at this level,” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball pointed out. “We were undersized a lot of times. A lot of times after, especially after we lost Arthur Larry, he had to play bigger. He had to defend a power forward and he was strong enough because of his work in the weight room and his tenacity to be able to guard a four at our level.”
Joseph’s unique skills also made it so he could guard big men when the team decided to deploy a small lineup.
This last season Joseph also shot 29.3% from three-point range while averaging 3.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
One thing he really did well in his sophomore campaign at Napa Valley College was free-throw shooting. As a freshman, he shot just 66% from the line. However, he bumped that all the way up to 77.9% in his final year. That’s a big jump and something every coach would want on their team.
“It’s really just about breathing, staying calm things like that,” Joseph said of his improved free-throw shooting. “I feel like a lot of free throws is mental, just trying not to think that you’re tired.”
All of this led him to be named to the first team all-Bay Valley Conference and was named honorable mention in Northern California by Signal the Light Basketball as well. He also played in the junior college All-Star game played at Napa Valley College on May 6th. He was on the JC Premier team that won 122-121.
Joseph was great at making his foul shots with the game on the line as well. In a game against Canada this last season, Joseph came to the line down by a point. He made both free throws to give the Storm a 63-62 win.
“It seemed as the game went along, his percentage went up,” Ball pointed out. “But I would guess the first 10 minutes of the game, it was back at that 66% and towards the last 20 minutes of the game, I think it would be up closer to 85% because I think that he had an ability to hone his level of focus and when he knew that it mattered, he was able to focus up even more and knock down a high higher percentage because I think he has confidence in that and he knows that his teammates are looking at him and he’s carrying guys on his back a little bit in that way and doing whatever it takes for us to be successful.”
In his freshman season, Joseph started just six games. However, he averaged 12.7 points per game and shot 43.8% from the field in just 1.8 minutes a game. The one thing that was a constant was the potential that was there.
Before getting to NVC, Joseph was at Armijo High School in Fairfield where he was a three-year varsity starter. He then went to Sacramento State for a year, where he decided he wanted to play basketball again. He was at Napa Valley College through the pandemic and other hard times before it was finally his time to take that next step forward. After all, his first year he was at Napa Valley College was when classes were all online and the team was doing online weight training.
This is the first National Letter of Intent signing in a few years for the Storm basketball program as well.
When Joseph gets to Redlands, he’s going to NCAA Division 3 program that competes in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Bulldogs went 19-8 overall last season and finished 12-4 in SCIAC play, good for third in the league. Pomona-Pitzer won the conference title with a whopping 15-1 record. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps went 13-3 in conference play.
“It really just felt like a family,” Joseph said as to what drew him to the Southern California campus. “It felt like everybody’s included from the coaching staff to the players to even the coach’s family. I mean, it felt like we’re all integrated one system and it wasn’t going to be just me fending for myself out there. I felt like I had like a team if I were to go there, which ultimately made the decision easier.”
They didn’t make the NCAA Tournament despite the great record. It was their second season in the last four years where they went 12-4 in SCIAC play.
