It is a casual morning at the African Leadership University. As I look for a comfortable spot, I notice a brother from Uganda seated in the open space by himself so I head to join him. After morning salutations and lamentations about the magnitude of work Leadership Core has, we somehow find ourselves discussing crushes! So we giggle about our crushes so far at the school campus and draw two conclusions; how one is likely to get disappointed when they finally talk to their crushes and can hardly sustain a sensible conversation. That or a humdrum moment would occur! (No hard feelings intended). Or you interact with the person and ponder, “Where have you been all my life?” Instead of a crush, think of a role model. Every sports person has that one person or people that they look up to and have this heavy desire to meet the person. A sneak peek into my role models would name the likes of Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Sylvia Fowles, Caster Semenya, Winnie Byanyima, and Lamunu Claire! I crossed paths with the latter recently. What would you do if you had 5 minutes with your role model? It so happened that I met her the day after I had been talking to a fellow basketball player about how I would love to meet this lady. Yay, the excitement! We were in the same space for about 6 hours but the first 2 hours I was just looking at her, all smiles and having all those questions pile in my mind. For those that don’t know who Claire Lamunu is, let’s do a brief run about her. She is a Ugandan born pro athlete, a basketball player from Gulu. She went to Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga where her basketball journey is rooted, proceeded to Makerere University for Biomedical Engineering where she played for Gladiators. She made it to the National Team at the age of 19 and played for KCCA in the NBL (National Basketball League). She was scouted and offered a 4-year scholarship to the Vanguard University of South California. She is currently playing in Finland. She has received numerous awards: MVP, player of the game, sports personality of the year, achievement awards; year in year out! She is currently a mentor under Score Beyond and holds personal camps in Uganda during the offseason period. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. I exploited every second I spent with her, draining her source of wisdom that I will generously pass on to fellow young girl athletes:
1. Be humble! After her days of shining at Namagunga, she was fortunate/unfortunate enough to land herself in the lowest team in the league! She welcomed the opportunity wholeheartedly and played like she was in the top team. 2. Be open-minded. Honestly, every athlete’s dream is to be professional and do what they love as their profession. After high school, most athletes are looking for ways to join the NCAA, NAIA, among others which are all college leagues out of Africa. This crowds your mind with a die or die situation and you close off opportunities right in front of you as your mind is strictly set to achieve one thing. If a university in your country is offering you a scholarship, take it, you never know who is watching you in that 1 or 2 years. 3. Hard work. This was like her emphasis after every discussion. Yes, baby, you got to stop having self-pity. Sports as a profession is like any other profession, you don’t give 50/50 and expect to get 100. Forget everyday pick up as this will surely keep you playing your backyard basketball, there is no level such as ‘I know it all’ skills. Practice every day to get the skills, carry those weights to get the energy, and eat enough and healthy every day to keep the fitness. 4. God above all. We make plans every day but it’s only God that lets them become actionable. Plus we need God in every journey of our lives. Pray every day for your plans and don’t force God to make your plans come true. He only knows the right time for you, what is right for you, and His guidance is needed on your journey every day. 5. Have other plans. So what if you never ever get to play professionally as you dream? Or you never get to play for the best team in the country’s league? Or think about the worst that could happen to you in sports. BUT you are one time scouted based on IQ and knowledge for the sport and someone picks interest in training you to become a coach, will you refuse because your mind is transfixed to playing professionally? Have other careers in mind. They may not even be sports-related. 6. You are greater than you think. She joined the National team at the age of 19 while playing for the lowest team in the league. She knew of sneers that she had received from an older member of the team but she didn’t let this affect her play or her ability to go hard while on the court! Don’t be pulled back by other people’s criticisms; instead, work harder at it!
I wish I had recorded our conversation for y’all to listen, but there you are. I was left with this satisfaction of, “Wow! Where have you been all my life?”, I needed to hear this. She had so many stories to share that I felt like we would go on and on. We shared a lot in common that she reminded me of my future self! Of course, we talked about life beyond basketball and I got to learn so much about her personal life such as she played against Breanna Stewart while in college (those that follow WNBA know the Forward beast I am talking about), Sabrina Ionescu (who doesn’t know the upbeat game this guard rookie brought to the New York Liberty) and finally the late Kobe Bryant (I will assume everyone knows jersey 24, Lakers). She has so much wisdom for young athletes that will keep you moving in the right direction! Keep being an inspiration to many more young athletes, Claire Lamunu!
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