Rena Wakama named head coach of women's 3x3 basketball team in US

Rena Wakama has been appointed the head coach of Hive Basketball Club (Hive BC) in the Unrivaled basketball league in the US.

Wakama, the current head coach of the D’Tigress, Nigeria’s national women’s basketball team, was announced in her new role in a league statement on Thursday.

The Unrivaled is a women’s three-on-three basketball league founded in 2023. The competition was created as an alternative league to run during the off-season of the US Women’s National Basketball Association (NWBA).

The Unrivaled first season was played in early 2025, and its second season will be held in 2026.

Wakama will be coaching the Hive BC’s debut in the competition when the next season commences.

In March, the 33-year-old trainer was appointed as an assistant coach at the Chicago Sky in the WNBA.

Wakama became the first female head coach of D’Tigress in 2023 and went on to become the first female coach to win the FIBA Afrobasket Women competition in the same year.

In August, she also led the team to its fifth consecutive Afrobasket title.

She was also named the best coach of the tournament in the basketball event of the Paris 2024 Olympics, where she made further history by leading D’Tigress to become the first-ever African national side — male or female — to qualify for the quarterfinals in the Olympics.

In basketball, it is not uncommon for coaches to work with both national teams and clubs simultaneously. Mike Brown remained an associate coach with the Golden State Warriors while leading the D’Tigers to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.