Rena Wakama (born 11 April 1992) is a Nigerian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and former player who is the head coach for the Nigeria Senior Women's Basketball Team and an assistant coach for the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2006 season. Th ...

Early life and education

Wakama was born in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

to Johnson Wakama and Rosana Oba whom are natives of

Okrika Okrika is a town in Rivers State, Nigeria, and serves as the headquarters of Okrika Local Government Area. It is situated on an island south of Port Harcourt, functioning as a suburb of the city. The inhabitants of Okrika LGA are of Ijaw descent ...

Rivers State Rivers is a states of Nigeria, state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed on 27 May 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Nigeria, Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include Imo State, Im ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. She holds a bachelor's degree in Therapeutic Recreation from the

Western Carolina University Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU ...

, and a master's degree in Business Administration from

Manhattan College Manhattan University (previously Manhattan College) is a private, Catholic university in New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the De La Salle Christian Brothers (Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools) as an academy fo ...

Career

Wakama's love for basketball was inspired by her cousin; Onimisi Aiyede at a young age.

As a player

While she was at WCU, she played for the

Western Carolina Catamounts The Western Carolina Catamounts are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Western Carolina University. The Catamounts compete in the NCAA Division I as members of the Southern Conference. Western Carolina fields 16 varsity sports t ...

for four years. Immediately she left college, she joined the D'Tigress where she played for the team at the 2015 Women's Afrobasket tournament in Cameroon where Nigeria finished third. She also represented Nigeria's First Bank at the FIBA Africa Champions Cup for Women during her career as a player.

As a coach

For her first two years at

, she served as the director of women's basketball operations, she became an assistant coach in her third year where she kept on developing talents while serving as the team's academics and community service liaison. In 2023, she became the first female Head Coach of D’Tigress, and became the first Nigerian National Female Basketball Team coach to win the FIBA AfroBasket Women competition since it began in 1966. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, under her leadership, Nigeria’s D’Tigress became the first African team, male or female, to qualify for the quarterfinals of basketball at the Olympics after beating Canada 79-70. She was awarded the Best Coach of the tournament by

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French language, French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the Basketball equipment ...

for guiding the Nigerian team to a historic outing at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

References

External links

{{Chicago Sky current roster Living people 1992 births Western Carolina University alumni Manhattan College alumni Coaches at the 2024 Summer Olympics