In the footsteps of Big Ben: Reynolds eager to better father’s mark in Africa

As Kenya made her last appearance at the men’s Afrobasket in 1993, ‘Big’ Ben Wanjara, was part of that Morans' squad that finished fourth at the championship, then named African Masculine championships. 

Twenty-eight years later, Wanjara’s daughter Victoria Reynolds is set to make her debut in the African scene with Kenya Lionesses at the Women’s Afrobasket due on 17 to 26 September 2021 in Cameroon after helping the team clinch the FIBA Zone Five title for a ticket to the biennial showpiece. 

So strong is her resolve to leave a mark better than her father’s at the continental level and beyond that she has elected to defer a semester of her Master’s degree programme in real estate development to represent her country in Cameroon. 

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“I started my Master programme in January and my second semester is meant to begin at the end of August which is the time I will be joining the team for residential training in Kenya. I knew I would be in this situation the moment we qualified and I had to find a way around it but before I could talk to my father about what options I had, he suggested that I defer and since we are paying for the programme out-of-pocket it was an easy decision to make,” explained Reynolds in an interview with Mozzart Sport.  

The former William and Mary University player has not been actively playing since graduating in 2020 but has kept busy in the gym and as well as with pick-up matches was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the Zone Five qualifiers. Apart from Lionesses’ first match against Rwanda where she managed five points, she was consistent in the other matches winning the best small forward and MVP awards in the end. 

“I followed the 2019 Zone Five championship and I think this year’s event was more competitive. We know the competition at the Afrobasket will be even tougher but I want to see the team going back to the podium. I am in the team for the long haul and I am hoping this will be the beginning of the team’s rise to the top of the continent. I want to see us qualifying for more than just the continental competitions,” added Reynolds. 

AfroBasket 2021: Reynolds eager to ball in Cameroon

Reynolds is back in the US for a short while before joining the team’s training at the end of the month in Nairobi. 

“I hope we can play a few friendly matches before heading out to Cameroon. We had not played any before the qualifiers and it was evident from our first match. We did not know who was in the starting five or which combination worked well for us. We are better now. The qualifiers were a learning platform too but we need to prepare well for Cameroon,” she added.