The Nigeria Basketball Federation has appointed Rena Wakama as head coach of Team Nigeria Women’s Basketball on a two-year contract.
The federation made the statement in a tweet on Friday.
Since Otis Hughley quit as head coach of the five-time Afrobasket winners in 2022, D’Tigress have been without a coach.
Wakama, a native of Rivers and a former member of the national team, is now an assistant coach at Stony Brooks University in the United States.
She was a four-year letterman at Western Carolina University 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.