Co-op Bank’s Katumbi off to USA
PHOTO | FILE Taudencia Katumbi (right) of Shimba Hills attempts to score past Rehema Safari of Bura Girls during the 2012 Coast Secondary Schools Term One games at Kenyatta High School. Katumbi is off to the US on a four-year basketball scholarship.
What you need to know:
- It’s dream come true as former Shimba Hills student set to pursue greener pastures in Texas
- The talented Katumbi who helped Shimba Hills to win national and regional schools basketball titles before joining Co-op Bank last year, is set to join Wiley College in the US on a four-year scholarship.
National classic basketball women’s league leaders Co-operative Bank will be without start forward Taudencia Katumbi who has left the country on a sports scholarship in the USA.
The talented Katumbi who helped Shimba Hills to win national and regional schools basketball titles before joining Co-op Bank last year, is set to join Wiley College in the US on a four-year scholarship.
The player, standing at six feet four, was being sought by local university teams, among them Strathmore, United States International University-Africa and Kenyatta University.
Katumbi opted for the Texas-based American college whose scouts were sent to watch her during last year’s Philadelphia 76ers camp in the US which she attended.
It is a dream come true for the 18-year-old who was admitted to Shimba Hills on a full scholarship from Unicef and Ministry of Education. Unicef has since set up national youth talent centres in eight schools countrywide.
“For a girl I gave a chance to study in my school when she had lost hope in life, it is unbelievable. She worked hard in class and in sports and is now set for stardom,” former Shimba Hills principal, Robert Aran, who admitted Katumbi at the school said. Aran has since been transferred to Kaya Tiwi Secondary.
Lionorah Amenyi, Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) national vice-chairman Rodgers Mwafungo who also doubles up as Coast region chairman, expressed confidence Katumbi will shine for her new team.
KSSSA treasurer peter Orero and chairman Paul Otula said the development offers hope for aspiring basketball players.
