The Sunday Mail
Veronica Gwaze
FOR Nicole Muzanenhamo, netball is simply all there is to her.
At 20, the Bulawayo-bred star is currently the youngest player in the national senior netball team, better known as the Gems.
Interestingly, her mother Connie Muzanenhamo is a renowned former player and current coach of South African side Falcon Queens.
Her sister Mitchelle is also a professional netballer under Green Fuel Netball Queens, where the two are trusted utility players.
The siblings featured for the Young Gems for years, where they made waves due to their clicking combination.
With the family largely surviving on the game’s proceeds, Nicole’s early crack into the Gems fold remains one of the special moments of her life.
Her name popped up in the Gems rebuilding exercise after the 2019 World Netball Cup, which saw the departure of veterans Perpetua Siyachitema, Pauline Jani, Mercy Mukwadi and Ndaizivei Madzikangava, among others.
Considering her age, it would have been expected of Nicole to have challenges filling in the gap.
However, the novice seems to be living way above the billing.
“Everything about my family is netball. The sport has taken us this far. It gave us a life. When I step onto the court, I have something big burning from within,” she said in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Mail Society.
“We live, eat and talk netball. It is pretty much what defines us as a family. Our lives revolve around the game.”
Nicole recalls watching her mother play when she was still in primary school.
And it was around that time Connie started nurturing the siblings into the sport.
Despite her age, “Manyonyana”, as she is affectionately known in netball circles, understood what her mother had to go through to put food on the table.
Her dream was to become a netball star and provide for her mother through the sport in the passage of time.
This, she said, gave her the drive to put in more effort and master the game with the hope of becoming professional one day.
During her days at Sikhulile High School, Nicole and Mitchelle grew to be the most trusted duo on court.
The two were instrumental in propelling the school to winning the Stella/Nash under 17 netball national competitions for four years running around 2015.
Sikhulile became the first school to record such a feat in the history of the competition.
Ironically, this is the same school where big netball names such as Gems captain Felisitus Kwangwa and Ursula Ndlovu emerged.
Despite the countless accolades
that decorate the young player, she feels her best netball moments are yet to come.
“Next year, I have planned to start preparing for my life after the court by taking up a sports administration course. My heart is in netball, so everything that I am going to do will revolve around netball.
“My friends are all netball players; we spend most of our time playing or talking about netball although we do go out sometimes. I also listen to music to unwind,” said Nicole.
She and her sister are currently based in Chisumbanje, which is home to the Green Fuels team, while her mother is in South Africa.
“My sister and I are inseparable, we do almost everything together, so for personal training, she is my partner. We are also each other’s cheerleaders. When I was in South Africa, we would chat or call each other every day.”
Nicole gave a spectacular performance at the 2023 Netball World Cup qualifiers, where the team booked a spot for next year’s global tournament.
She marked her debut at the Confederation of Southern Africa Netball Associations (COSANA) Tri-nations tournament in Malawi earlier in June.
Nicole feels the World Cup will be time for the Gems to shine and be noticed by foreign-based clubs.
“When my first Gems call up came, I understood what it meant because I had been playing for the juniors for years,” she recalls.
“However in Malawi, I realised it was tougher than I thought, so coming back I had to work extra hard, only to enjoy the dividends at the qualifiers.”
Barely a year into the Gems fold, she has become one of the trusted players who features in the first seven.
“Making a name out there is a process which requires hard work and dedication. There is so much I wish to do for my mother through my earnings because I understand what she went through to make us happy.”
Her dream is establishing a netball academy in honour of her mother.
The academy is to be fully funded by her netball proceeds. She reckons it will help communities by taking young girls off the streets, thereby curbing issues to do with child marriages, teen pregnancies, alcohol and drug abuse.
Mitchelle feels her young sister has what it takes to get to the top.
“I actually believe she has all the potential and that if she gives it her all, she will be one of Zimbabwe’s finest.
“I am her biggest fan, I love her high spirit, her agility and the techniques that she has mastered.
“At home, everything is about netball, which gives us a strong bond and ample time to teach each other and learn more about the game and I cannot wait for her to teach me what she learnt in the Gems camp.”
