Kenya Morans coach Mills breaks the glass ceiling

Liz Mills and the “Morans” have been extensively talked and written about this week, so most Kenyan must already know who she is and what she has done. But has anyone tried to imagine her first day at work?

Not the day she signed the contract to join the national basketball team’s technical bench. That can’t have been the hardest part. The suits must have known all her qualifications by heart and had previously watched her in action with the Zambian national team so they were pretty much on board with her charisma and enthusiasm by the time she came to Nairobi to negotiate her contract.

I’m talking about her first day with the Morans team.

Close your eyes and imagine her quietly trailing Kenya Basketball Federation chairman Paul Otula to the Nyayo Stadium gymnasium, trying hard to hide the overwhelming anxiety and perspiration, and the overbearing jet lag from having flown 14,000 kilometres to this place.

Imagine her filing into the indoor arena, perhaps catching the Morans halfway through their session. The air in the room must have changed. She is Australian, which means her skin colour draws some degree of attention.

I imagine the players avoiding eye contact, trying to say focused on their paces, trying not to stare.

And then…“This is Liz Mills, she is our new coach.”  

Imagine the silent gasps. The disbelief. The amazement. Then later, at the dinner table after the training session, the conversations among the team members. It is the first time a woman is at the helm of the men’s national basketball team.

Did the Morans instinctively doubt her abilities as a tactician? Did they question KBF’s decision to hire her? Were they disrespectful? Did any of them try to flirt with her?

Now imagine Liz Mills taking the reins. Imagine her standing before a group of lanky, very dark skinned, well built, agile men, probably the only woman in the room.

And then the task at hand — to reach the Afrobasket Championship, a feat that has eluded dozens of male coaches for the last three decades.  

“Am I really ready for this?” I can almost hear her.  

Yet here we are. Less than a month after that first encounter and now everyone knows.  Everyone who watched her stomping, recoiling, clapping, jumping and gesturing from the touchline throughout the Afrobasket tournament, and especially on the day the Morans beat Angola, knows that she is no pushover. 

Riding on the wings of renowned coaches Natosha Cummings-Price, Karen Dalton and Becky Hammon before her, this is a woman determined to see the dream she nursed for years in Sydney come to fruition, no matter what it takes or where it takes her.

American (female coach) Natosha Cummings already kicked the door open by leading Cameroon to 10th place in the 12-team Fiba Women’s AfroBasket in Dakar last year.

Mills, it seems, wants to go one up. In an interview earlier this week, she said: “I want my success to inspire more women to take up basketball coaching.”  

Then she paused, as if checking the practicality of her claims before adding, “It is possible.”  Of course coach Mills. It is certainly possible. You are doing it already!

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