Noémia Massingue: Young Mozambican basketballer joins WNBA academy in the US

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Noémia Massingue: Young Mozambican basketballer joins WNBA academy in the US

2:35 CAT | 18 Aug 2016

A Bola (File photo) / Noémia Masingue ((L) seen here receiving the prize for her Matola Secondary School team (the 'Pacers') from the hands of WNBA legends Ruth Riley (US) and Clarisse Machanguana (R), at the first Junior NBA Girls Only League held in Mozambique (June / July 2015).

Noémia Massingue, a young athlete from Ferroviário de Maputo and a student at Matola Secondary School, is to join the Association of Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Academy in the United States, where she will pursue her studies from now on.

With a grant from the Clarisse Machanguana Foundation, in partnership with the NBA, Noémia, 15, will study at a private school and live in the home of a couple who are members of the NBA.

The delighted young athlete attended a farewell ceremony on Wednesday with the Minister of Education and Human Development, Jorge Ferrao, her family and also Clarisse Machanguana, the only Mozambican basketball player ever to play in the WNBA so far.

Regarding Massingue’s stay in the United States, Clarisse explained that it is a scholarship and not a contract to play.

‘The Foundation is not the actioner of this event, but the bridge between Noémia’s talent and the experiences that she will be able to enjoy in the US. We expect her to study and showcase her talent at the highest level,” she says.

As a social activist, Machanguana is currently embracing causes that have to do with girls’ empowerment, and not only in sports. Clarisse highlights the importance of education, saying that hers is a very large foundation of which sport is just a part, and stressing that ” academic training comes first”. “Sports careers are very short. After we play, we have to have something to move on with in life,” she says.

The happy young Noémia says she is lucky to be able to go study and play in the United States. “I will have the opportunity to show people that Mozambicans are deserving. I am very happy, both for myself and for my parents,” she says.

Noémia is the first beneficiary of the project to study and play basketball in the United States promoted by the Machanguana Foundation. She was discovered in a Junior League NBA tournament in Maputo among about 400 students from 30 schools held as a result of a partnership between the Ministry of Education and Human Development and the Clarisse Machanguana Foundation, and was a member of the Mozambican national team that recently won the basketball tournament at the CPLP Games in Cape Verde.

Source: A Bola