BY ABONYI IKECHUKWU EMMANUEL
The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has unveiled Coach Rena Wakama as the new Head Coach for the Nigeria women’s basketball team, D’Tigress.
The contract as stated by the NBBF on Friday, June 30 is for two years in the first instance.
Rena Wakama was a former Nigerian national team player, and currently serves as an Assistant Coach at Stony Brooks University, USA.
NBBF wrote, “Wakama was a 4-year letterman at the University of Western Carolina and played professional basketball in the United Kingdom, in addition to playing for the Senior Nigerian National Team.
“Wakama received a bachelor’s degree in therapeutic recreation from Western Carolina in 2014 and an MBA from Manhattan in 2019.”
She is an indigene of the Rivers State of Nigeria.
Wakama has taken on the biggest task in the women’s basketball on the continent of Africa as the Nigerian ladies are the current African champions. They won the trophy in 2017 and have since remained unbeaten by any African team at any venue across the world. They made it to the quarter-final stage of the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Spain beating teams regarded as super powers along the line.
Wakama’s first work is to rebuild an emotionally fragile team that was engulfed in serious political upheaval surrounding the federation’s election in 2022 – a development that made them lose their place at the last World Cup in Australia.
The Nigerian sports ministry shockingly chose to withdraw the team from the World Cup on the eve of the tip off.
Next for Wakama is to successfully defend the African Cup in Rwanda in July.
