'Yin and yang.' Twin Lakes basketball a family affair for Nickersons, Bowsmans
MONTICELLO — Sisters not by birth, but by basketball.
Before they could walk or talk, and certainly well before Olivia Nickerson and Addie Bowsman were one of the best backcourt combos in Indiana high school girls basketball, they were already linked.
Their fathers, too.
Brad Bowsman is in his 21st season as Twin Lakes head girls basketball coach.
His right-hand man, sitting next to him for all that time, is Troy Nickerson.
They’ve known each other since first teaching together in 2000 and they are as cohesive on the bench as their daughters are leading one of the state’s top Class 3A basketball teams.
“It’s kind of yin and yang,” Troy Nickerson said. “Brad is the ultimate optimist. I tend to be more the pessimist. Because we have such alternate views, he doesn’t always appreciate what I say, but as coaches you need the one that kind of has alternate views so you can workshop what is going to work.”
Last season, everything seemed to work.
Led by the Nickerson-Bowsman combo on the court and another on the bench, Twin Lakes won 28 straight games before its only loss in the semistate final to eventual state champion Fairfield.
Gone from that team are five seniors, who’d played alongside Nickerson and Bowsman since they were in third grade. Nickerson was in second grade and Bowsman was in first grade when the group began together.
Now Nickerson, a senior sharpshooting guard, and Bowsman, a junior point guard are ushering in a new group and right now the Indians are 5-1.
Last week Bowsman went over 1,000 career points. Nickerson has a legitimate chance to reach 2,000 points before the season ends. It’s not abnormal for Bowsman to drive to the basket and blindly throw a pass back to the perimeter with Nickerson already waiting and anticipating.
They’ve played together so much, there’s just a natural feel for what the other is going to do before she does it.
“I grew up in the gym with Olivia,” Addie Bowsman said. “Our minds are just tied together.”
As soon as they could dribble, they were in the gym, getting up shots while their fathers ran practices for the Twin Lakes varsity.
Not long after that, they began tagging along on their fathers’ scouting trips.
Then as middle schoolers, they’d come and run full court scrimmages against the high school team and more than hold their own with players five, six, seven years older.
“Olivia doesn’t even call me coach. She calls me Brad because we’ve been around so much,” Brad Bowsman said. “Troy is like a dad to Addie. We have a tight bond as a family. It has been a special bond.”
There’s sometimes a fine line when coaching your own child. And an even finer line when you coach your own child’s best friend who essentially is a non biological daughter.
And on top of that, they’re two of the best players Twin Lakes has ever had and they just happen to be there at the same time.
When do you be dad and when do you be coach?
How hard can you ride your best player when things aren’t going well? Especially knowing that might carry over into home life.
They’ve made it work and none of them would trade it for the world.
“I love it. It is always interesting,” Olivia Nickerson said. “I feel like every day, they are saying something new, but we’ve been together forever. It is cool and having this last year together is really special.”
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Twin Lakes led by Nickerson, Bowsman both on court and on the bench
