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Twenty-six-year-old tapped to head Cambrian hoops program

Nambogga Sewali has lived basketball virtually her entire life. Now, she is tasked with the challenging chore of trying to bring that same passion across the entire women's basketball lineup at Cambrian College.
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Nambogga Sewali is Cambrian College's new women's basketball coach. Supplied photo.
Nambogga Sewali has lived basketball virtually her entire life. Now, she is tasked with the challenging chore of trying to bring that same passion across the entire women's basketball lineup at Cambrian College.

Just 26 years of age, the native Torontonian was named as the second head coach in program history earlier this summer, taking over the reins of the Golden Shield female hardcourt crew from Bruce Cowtan.

Knowing and understanding the game will likely be the least of the concerns for Sewali. Growing up just a stone's throw away from the renowned Harbourfront Community Centre, a pick-up outdoor facility that has hosted some of the top talent the country has ever produced, the recent graduate of Brock University was quickly immersed in the sub-culture that is inner city basketball in Toronto.

"My style of play was always street ball, with the boys, really rough," Sewali said. "Once I got into the OBA (Ontario Basketball Association), it became more structured. I learned so much playing OBA."

Moving on from Henry Park Secondary School in Whitby to the Brock Badgers, Sewali would compete in the OUA for just one year, focusing on her studies through her remaining time in St Catharines.

Through it all, she recognized the calling that coaching presented. "I was a pure point guard, like a coach on the court," she said.

Even a brief foray into the world of officiating would help produce the foundation of her career behind the bench.

"Refereeing teaches you a whole different perspective of the game,” she said. “You learn how people move on the court. Reffing is great, but man, it's stressful.”

In 2012, the talkative young lady decided to follow her brother to Sudbury, helping him out as he pursued employment opportunities in Western Canada.
It didn't take long for Sewali to become part of the SYBA (Sudbury Youth Basketball Association) family. "As soon as I got here, I wanted to get into coaching," she said.

Reunited with coach John Desormeaux, who at one time had invited a much younger Sewali to compete within the CanStars program, the newcomer was provided the chance to work as an assistant coach with a Sudbury Jam U12 girls team.

"That was tough," she said. "You need to break everything down to the bare bones. You have to learn to talk to them on a common ground that they will all understand."

She would move up a few age divisions in 2014-2015, working alongside Lasalle graduate Alyssa Ferreira with a U16 girls squad.

It was Ferreira, in fact, who first alerted Sewali about the job opening at Cambrian. "I don't think I would have this same opportunity open for me anywhere else," said Sewali. She is hoping that a very limited coaching resumé will be sufficiently offset by the youthful enthusiasm she brings to her new role, mixed in with a seemingly endless passion for the sport that she loves.

"I'm a young coach, so I feel that I have to prove myself beyond anybody else," she said. "There's no getting around the fact that I am a young coach. I will have to layout the foundation of what I want them to do. I really need them to be on the same page as me."

"I've never been one to yell, but I will need to be firm," Sewali continued. "There is going to be structure, and communication will be key. It all starts, however, with getting the right type of players."

New ideas are constant, buzzing non-stop in her mind. They emanate from a basketball world that none of her players can likely relate to. It's a world that Sewali would like very much to share.

"Growing up down south, we had so many opportunities in basketball," she said. "It's not quite the same here. I want to build that." It may take some time, but in the case of Nambogga Sewali, time is very much on her side.

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