Meet the innovator responsible for Nigeria’s history in Olympic basketball.
The Nigerian Olympic Women’s Basketball Team, captained by Rena Wakama, recently defeated Canada 79-70. The ball club rebounded from last Thursday’s 75-54 loss to France with a 45% shooting effort and a strong defensive performance to impede Canada’s progress. In the competition, the team is now 2-1. Who is Rena Wakama, then? She was reared by Johnson Wakama and Rosana Oba after being born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her parents are from Okrika in Nigeria’s Rivers State. In addition to her role as coach of the D’Tigress, she serves as Tulane University’s assistant coach for the women’s basketball team.
She began her basketball career with the Western Carolina Catamounts, where she played for four years. Subsequently, she became a member of the Nigerian Women’s National Basketball Team, contributing to the team’s third-place performance at the 2015 Women’s AfroBasket competition held in Cameroon. In the meantime, she began coaching during her first two years of study for her master’s in business administration at Manhattan College. She started off as the assistant coach before moving up to head of women’s basketball operations. She gained a lot of expertise in overseeing the players’ growth.
Rena Wakama was appointed the D’Tigress’s first female head coach in 2023, and that same year, she captained her squad to an AfroBasket championship victory.
Read more on sportchannel.co.uk
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