Nigeria women’s basketball makes history at Paris Olympics with Raleigh native coaching it
From a young age, Rena Wakama was dedicated to basketball, setting her alarms for 5 a.m. to watch the summer Olympics games on TV.
Growing up in Raleigh, Wakama’s passion for the sport continued to grow. She started playing at Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle School before joining the Carolina Flames travel team.
In 2010, Wakama started her playing career at Western Carolina University where she ranks ninth in the Catamount record books for career 3-pointers with 100.
In June 2023, Wakama became the head coach of the Nigeria women’s basketball team. She made history as the first female coach of an African team to record a win at the Olympics.
“Basketball has pretty much been a big, humongous part of my life,” Wakama said. “It’s taken me all over the world. I’ve met so many people and experienced so many things with it. I feel like I owe it to the game to give back and serve as a coach now.”
Following her college graduation, Wakama joined the D’Tigress and traveled to Cameroon for the 2015 Women’s Afrobasket competition, where Nigeria finished third.
After returning to the states and working at Verizon full-time, Wakama began coaching for the Carolina Flames AAU team where she helped develop current NC State guard, Saniya Rivers.
“Coaching got me excited again because the girls were so young and so fresh,” Wakama said. “They were so talented and that reminded me a lot of myself. I wanted to be able to pour back into them and see them live their dreams and that’s what helped me find my love for the game.”
In August 2023, Wakama became the first female coach to win the women’s AfroBasketball title. She later led Nigeria to qualify for the Olympics, another first for a female coach.
At the 2024 games, Wakama continues to stress the importance of grit and pushing boundaries to her team.
“We’re going into this as the underdogs,” Wakama said. “We were a super young team, we weren’t even supposed to make it to the Olympics and we did, we persevered through. I just want us to keep that mentality as we’re going through the games.”’
In their first game in Paris, Nigeria bested Australia 75-62. This victory marked several significant milestones for Wakama and her team, which includes former Duke player Elizabeth Balogun. Wakama became the first coach of an African women’s team to win in the preliminary rounds of the Olympics and the first to lead an African team to an upset victory at the Olympics.
In the past year, Wakama has built her program around four words: love, trust, sacrifice and resiliency. Wakama and her team will carry these traits forward in future games.
“We’re resilient, we’re dauntless,” Wakama said. “No matter where you put us, we’re going to figure out a way to survive and claw through it.
In its second game, Nigeria lost to France, 75-54. However, on Sunday in their final pool play game against Canada, Nigeria won, 79-70, and advanced to Wednesday’s quarterfinals and a matchup with the U.S.
Wakama knows that the team will continue to play with a sense of urgency.
“We do it with a lot of style, a lot of grace and a lot of personality too,” Wakama said. “We’re very unique in that sense and I’m excited for the world to see.”
Maya Waid is a student with UNC Media Hub, a program with the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reporting from the Summer Olympics in Paris.
This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Nigeria women’s basketball makes history at Paris Olympics with Raleigh native coaching it."