Nigeria’s women’s basketball coach Rena Wakama has been unveiled as the new head coach of Hive BC ahead of the 2025–26 Unrivaled Basketball League season in the United States.
The 32-year-old, who guided D’Tigress to back-to-back FIBA Women’s AfroBasket titles in 2023 and 2025, will lead one of the league’s two expansion franchises as Unrivaled enters its second campaign in January 2026.
Unrivaled, co-founded in 2023 by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, debuted earlier this year with six teams and has now expanded to eight for its sophomore season.
The league confirmed Wakama’s appointment on Thursday, describing her as “a trailblazer and proven winner.”
Wakama’s rise has been meteoric since she made history as the first female coach to win the Women’s AfroBasket title in 2023.
She followed that with another continental triumph in 2025 and steered D’Tigress to a record-breaking Olympic quarter-final berth in Paris, the first by any African basketball team, male or female.
Before her international success, Wakama served as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky in the WNBA and held coaching positions at Tulane, Stony Brook, and Manhattan College, where she began her career after playing collegiately at Western Carolina University.
She now joins a coaching roster that includes Noelle Quinn (Breeze BC), Andrew Wade (Laces BC), DJ Sackmann (Lunar Owls BC), Zach O’Brien (Mist BC), Roneeka Hodges (Phantom BC), Nola Henry (Rose BC), and Teresa Weatherspoon (Vinyl BC).
Wakama’s appointment marks another milestone in her growing legacy as she continues to bridge African excellence with the evolving landscape of women’s basketball in the United States.
