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Tinashe Kusema
When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
That is exactly what Tawanda Nemutambwa did when he was involved in a car accident that robbed him of his basketball playing career.
The 28-year-old now leads the line of new, young and fresh-minded coaches entrusted with injecting some life into Zimbabwe’s basketball prospects.
Coach Russy, as the former Prince Edward School star is known in the local basketball circles, is one of the most sought after coaches in the country.
He currently wears three hats — that of assistant coach for the Zimbabwe senior men’s team and that of head coach for both Heritage Private School and Harare City Hornets. But that wasn’t the case in the beginning.
“Coaching was just something I got into to earn some extra cash. My dream was to play basketball at the highest level in the country or in one of the world’s big leagues,” said Nemutambwe.
With uncles like Darlington and Admire Masenda (both former players and coaches) as well as two older siblings who also left a mark on the court, basketball runs in his blood. “I started playing basketball at a very tender age as my older brothers often took me to their games and practice sessions.
“It wasn’t long before they started coaching me and my journey began first at Moffat Primary and then at Prince Edward,’’ he said. The challenge of the Harare Basketball League then came calling as Nemutambwe joined Stanbic Mavericks before moving to Varsity Leopards and later Mbare Heat.
But Nemutambwe could only muster one league title with Mbare Heat before his dream turned into a nightmare.
In mid-2015, a car accident robbed Nemutambwe of his playing career and almost paralyzed him when the doctors who operated on him made a mistake.
“The accident occurred along Borrowdale Road. A friend who was driving me failed to negotiate a turn and our car overturned, rolled six times and threw me out.
“Among my injuries was a shattered knee that required three different operations mainly to check the extent of the injury, clean the knee and install a plate.
“But the doctors messed it up when they put wires instead of the plate. When I tried to come back to competitive basketball, it proved futile.” Most of his rehabilitation, which took several months, was done on a basketball court. This led Nemutambwe to the epiphany that his basketball dream was not entirely over.
Coaching became his route back into the spotlight.
Having already made a mark at school level and after recently helping orchestrate the country’s first ever win against neighbours and African powerhouse Mozambique, the former Varsity Leopard’s power forward hopes to leave his mark on the Hornets. “l take my job here at Hornets very seriously.
“My mandate is to win titles but I also want to put some professionalism into how the boys do things.
“Being a player, at this club or any other, is a privilege and not a right.
“There are responsibilities placed on players both on and off the court. This is something most players take for granted.
“They are role models and it’s time they act like it,” he said.
Nemutambwe has already started putting his signature on the club by offloading the likes of Agrippa Masvisvi and Charles Machuma. He has roped in childhood friend and Zimbabwean talisman Vitalis Chikoko to help inspire and train his charges.
“Vitah (Chikoko) and I went to school together at Prince Edward and when he approached me to help him with his off-season workouts, I saw it as an opportunity for him to help train and inspire my players,” he said.
Online Reporter