Akin Ayomide
The head coach of Nigeria’s women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, Rena Wakama, has been appointed head coach of Hive BC in the Unrivaled Basketball League 2025–26 season.
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, confirming Wakama’s appointment alongside seven others across the league’s eight clubs.
Wakama led D’Tigress to back-to-back FIBA Women’s Afro Basket 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.
“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 Afro Basket title in August 2023 and subsequently led the team to another Afro Basket title in 2025,” the league said.
Unrivaled added that the 32-year-old previously served in assistant coaching roles for Tulane and Stony Brook.
She began her coaching career after spending two years at Manhattan College as the director of basketball operations, then advancing to an assistant coach role.
She played collegiately at Western Carolina University.
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).