Ngulela embracing coaching challenge in Mozambique

MAPUTO (Mozambique) - The transition from being a basketball player to coaching has been filled with sacrifice, relentlessness and a clear vision for Mozambican legend Deolinda Ngulela.

The 39-year old who captained Mozambique for more than a decade since making her debut in 2003 to her last FIBA Women's AfroBasket in 2015 has thrown all her energy into leading the charge for female coaches in her country and across the continent. 

Where many shy away from the job on the sidelines, Ngulela is quietly building her profile both at club level and on the same national team that she featured for and fought sweat and blood whenever called upon. 

In an exclusive interview with FIBA.basketball, she said, "It is quite a responsibility, yet a very exciting challenge. I know what it takes to make it as a player and I want to find out what it takes to make it as a coach and I am not afraid to put in the necessary work for it."

Ngulela was named among the All-Star Five at the 2015 FIBA Women's AfroBasket

The same excellence and attention to detail she exemplified as a player is the same that is guiding her dream to be head coach of the Mozambican national side one day. It is a tall order but she is up for it in every aspect. 

"Coaching the national team would be a dream come true for me. I do not know when but I am sure that it will happen [to be the head coach]. Honestly, I feel like I have a lot to learn. I want to embrace the team when I get a little more experience. There are certain things of the game that I know I have to improve on and I will. Then I will be ready to take on the team," she said.

Ngulela is the Mozambique assistant coach and worked at two back-to-back AfroBasket editions in Mali in 2017 and last year in Senegal helping the side to the Semi-Finals and with that announcing themselves on the scene as the new kids on the block. 

With Nigeria's ascendence to the throne of African basketball and winning two titles in the last three years, Mozambique's continued success and improvement has brought new energy to the tournament away from the usual dominance of 12-time record winners Senegal, the perennial stubborn Malians and former champions Angola. 

In fact when Mozambique dislodged Senegal in the FIBA Women's Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament played in Maputo in November last year, the result affirmed Mozambique's ambitions to conquer Africa one step at a time. 

Ngulela looks on during a time at the AfroBasket last year in Senegal

As a former player, it is easy for her to relate with the players, especially those that she played alongside and are still active. She understands how they think and with her newly acquired coaching knowledge is able to guide them.

When not with the national side, Ngulela is coaching back home in the national league. 

"I actually transitioned into that role not really thinking about it. I did two years of coaching when I was in the USA at Augusta State University and I enjoyed. It was challenging. When I came back home, I decided to continue playing until 2015 when I announced that I was not going to continue with the national team yet I still wanted to play for my club," she said.

"However, that same year, the sponsor decided to close the team. So another team offered me the coaching and playing position so that is when the coaching career took off. I played and coached for a year and after that I noticed that doing both was not going to work.

"So I ended my career as a player but I felt like I still had a lot to give basketball-wise so I decided to coach for good. That way, I was still doing basketball yet in a different position."

Ngulela coached Costa do Sol since 2015-2019

She came close to winning the league title but a charged Ferroviario de Maputo stopped her and her side in their tracks on their way to winning back-to-back African trophies. 

This has not stopped her from dreaming even bigger. She has since taken up the head coach position at former African champions Desportivo de Maputo - the first team to ever win this title back-to-back in 2007 and 2008. Their glory days are behind them but Ngulela wants to build the team into continental beaters.

"It is a very young team with no experience but they are willing to work hard and that is the only thing I need from them now. I am very excited about the team. I believe these girls will surprise a lot of people," she spoke highly of them. 

A legend herself in a country that has produced some of the greatest players in Africa like former WNBA player Clarisse Machanguana, currently the in-form Leia Dongue, reigning FIBA Africa Women's Club Championship MVP Ingvild Mucauro and three-point assassin Anabela Cossa, Ngulela believes that there is more from where they came from. 

The recent success story of the national side is timely ahead of the AfroBasket next year.

Dongue has been consistent for Mozambique in recent years

"For sure, it will be a team to look forward to. We have a lot of young and talented players playing abroad and a couple that have been to the AfroBasket and that will give us a different outlook to the team. It is going to be a hard team to coach as well as to play against. Stay alert," she warned. 

Ngulela regrets not being able to win the AfroBasket with Mozambique as a player but she now has a chance to do so as a coach if what she says is anything to go by. 

"It is absolutely rewarding to know that all those years of hard work paid off not exactly like I wanted but I cannot complain. I would trade all my individual awards to have won the AfroBasket. My highlight as a player was going to the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Turkey. It was an amazing experience," Ngulela said.

As a young girl growing up in the posh neighbourhood of Sommerschield in Maputo, she did not comprehend the impact that the hoops game would have on her life years later. 

"It was never in my mind to play basketball. It was something everyone in my neighbourhood was doing so I just went along. Yet, little did I know that basketball was going to be my life. I love every aspect of the game."

Ngulela has since transitioned into a very important face for women basketball coaches in Africa and continues to lead the way for retired players to take up the mantle and challenge themselves at the top. Her journey looks bright ahead as she dreams of conquering Africa.

FIBA