AFROBASKET: Newly Appointed D'Tigress Head Coach, Rena Wakama To Lead Women's Basketball National Team To 2023 AfroBasket

Newly-appointed D'Tigress Head Coach, Rena Wakama will lead the Nigeria Women's senior basketball national team to the 26th edition of the 2023 AfroBasket Women championship according to an online reports. 

D'Tigress who have won the tournament three times in a row will eye equalling the Senegalese women's national team achievements of winning it four times consecutively.

The tournament will hold from 28 July to 6 August 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Basketball Federation on Friday engaged coach Rena Wakama as head coach for the Team Nigeria Women’s basketball team for two years.

The federation made the announcement in a tweet and on their official Facebook page.

D’Tigress have been without a head coach since Otis Hughley resigned from his role with the five-time Afrobasket champions in 2022.

Wakama, who hails from Rivers and currently an assistant coach at Stony Brooks University in the US.

Wakama was a four-year letterman at the University of Western Carolina and also played professional basketball in the United Kingdom.

She received a bachelor’s degree in Therapeutic Recreation from Western Carolina in 2014 and an MBA from Manhattan in 2019.

Wakama is in her fourth year as an assistant coach at Manhattan College after serving for two years as Director of Women’s Basketball Operations.

As an assistant coach, Wakama oversees the development of the wing/guard position players, while also serving as the team’s academics and community service liaison.

Under her mentorship, the Jaspers earned a program-high 3.61 team GPA and placed fifth nationally in community service hours for all of Division I women’s basketball.

Wakama helped develop Davis and Brazil Harvey-Carr to earn post-season All-MAAC honours during the 2021/22 season.