The coach of Nigeria’s women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, Rena Wakama, has been named the Coach of Hive BC in the new Unrivaled Basketball League for the 2025/26 season. The appointment comes as the Nigerian coach prepares for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with Nigeria.
Unrivaled is an eight-team women’s basketball league in the United States, co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier in 2023, and made its debut in January 2025 with six teams.
The league announced its head coaching lineup for the second season on its website on Thursday. The details confirm Wakama’s new position alongside seven others across the league’s eight clubs. Wakama was an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky in the first season.
Wakama led D’Tigress to back-to-back Women’s AfroBasket titles in 2023 and 2025 and guided the team to a historic quarter-final berth at the Paris Olympic Games.
She will take charge of one of the league’s two expansion franchises as Unrivaled will enter its second campaign in January 2026.
The league’s statement reads, “Rena Wakama will lead Hive BC in the team’s Unrivaled debut, following her first season as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky.
“Wakama also serves as head coach of the Nigerian Women’s National Team and made history in 2024 when the D’Tigress became the first African team, men’s or women’s, to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympics.
“After joining as head coach in June 2023, she became the first female coach to ever win a Women’s AfroBasket title in August 2023 and subsequently led the team to another AfroBasket title in 2025.”
Wakama joins a group of eight head coaches that includes Noelle Quinn (Breeze BC), Andrew Wade (Laces BC), DJ Sackmann (Lunar Owls BC), Zach O’Brien (Mist BC), Roneeka Hodges (Phantom BC), defending champion coach Nola Henry (Rose BC), and Teresa Weatherspoon (Vinyl BC).
Extrasportnigeria 
Leave a comment