NAIROBI, Kenya, May 4 – Melissa Akinyi had never been skipper at any level of her basketball career until last year, when she was voted to lead out the Kenyan national women’s football team, Kenya Lionesses, at the Zone Five FIBA Afrobasket qualifiers in Kigali, Rwanda.
“I had never been the captain of anything from primary school, High School, University and even club level. So it was basically a new experience for me. I had never had a role in my life to lead people. I enjoyed it though. We had a good group of ladies and they were good to deal with,” Akinyi said, speaking to Capital Sports.
She picks this as the most memorable moment of her career to date, not because of the weight of the armband, but the results the team posted in Kigali.
The Lionesses qualified for the FIBA Afrobasket, not as the losing finalists as they had always done, but as winners of the Zone Five qualifiers, having beaten Egypt, a team that had been a thorn in their flesh for years.
The Lionesses lost to Egypt when they met in the first round of matches by half a basket, but corrected their mistakes in the deciding duel of the five-nation tournament, winning 99-83.
“At some point in the preliminaries, we led Egypt by more than 25 points but we ended up losing by a point. But it is after this game that we had the belief that we could actually beat them. We went back, watched the videos and corrected our mistakes. In the final, we made things right and lifted the trophy. I was happy to do this as captain,” Akinyi explained.
She added; “I remember I was even joking with one of my teammates that they had really made my CV. I would be saying that we won the Zone Five title with me as captain. It was a good feeling and whenever someone called me captain I would feel nice,” adds Melissa with a cheeky smile on her face.
It was the highlight of her career thus far, especially putting in mind she had been dropped from the team twice before; in 2017 and 2019. In both occasions, she had been part of the qualifiers, but never made it into the final travelling team for the Afrobasket.
While many know her as Melissa, the Equity Hawks shooting guard and the Kenya Lionesses skipper, most are not aware of where her sporting genes emanate.
She is the daughter of former Harambee Stars captain and coach, legendary footballer John Bobby Ogolla, aka The Six Million Dollar Man.
But did her father ever influence her choice of sport?
“There is a time he jokingly asked me, ‘Kiki, why have you never tried football?’. But for me, I was never interested in football. I never liked it. You know I have never seen him play. I was born in 1992 and that is around the time he had stopped playing. I have known him more as a coach and not a player,” Melissa says.
She adds; “I only hear stories about his playing days, read articles and see photos. I hear people calling him names like six million dollar man, Simba, etc,” she further explains.
“He was always there encouraging me in sports and I think it is from him that I got the genes. But honestly it is my mother who has been my biggest supporter all this time,” she explains.
Ogolla, who is now a member of the FKF Caretaker Committee and until recently the head coach of top tier side Kenya Police FC, remembers her daughter’s childhood as a person who had the love for sports from a young age.
“She was a good girl and really loved sports. But I let her choose whatever sport she liked. I look at her decisions and how she turned out, going on to the level of being the national team captain and it makes me proud as a dad. Like father like daughter,” Bobby Ogolla told Capital Sport, accompanied with his signature love.
While she has excelled in basketball, being part of the Equity Hawks team that has won the national title twice, Akinyi says the game was never even her first love and she got into the game ‘by accident.
“My first love was actually athletics. I started running from when I was in primary school. In High School. I just went to try out basketball and to my surprise, I liked it. So that is how I started playing basketball,” says the 28 year old who also played for Strathmore University.
She went on to start featuring for the national team with the Under-18s and has gone on to grow into the seniors, though with a lot of speed bumps and challenges on the way.
With no national team assignments this year, Akinyi has now set her eyes on earning a place in the Kenyan 3by3 basketball team that heads out for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
She has already made the preliminary list and she now hopes to work harder and get into the final team.
The post Melisa Akinyi opens up on captaining national basketball team, quitting athletics and being John ‘Bobby’ Ogolla’s daughter appeared first on Capital Sports.
