Waringo: The talent-nurturing legendary tactician

Kenyatta University veteran coach Gitau Waringo wants a stronger universities league which will in return produce top talents for the top tier championship.

“We have the players, we have the support and I do not understand why we cannot have our own league the way colleges in USA do, and which acts as a feeder to the National Basketball Association (NBA). It is about time,” said Waringo.

What Waringo is proposing is not new. There have been talks to have varsity de-linked from the national league before, but still no concrete decision has been arrived at. Waringo says the time is now and the sooner it is done, the better.The coach has been at KU since 2002 and has seen many players pass through his hands.

A good number of them, he says, have good jobs and can help in looking for sponsorship. But he is well aware that driving this agenda will be a tall order. Waringo has been in and around the sport for years, having started playing at a tender age of six where he was involved in junior basketball for the Shauri Moyo Baptist and YMCA mini teams.

The team was by then handled by missionary coaches Bob Hall and John Sanders. Among the local coaches who helped shape up Waringo at different phases of his life as a junior were World Hope coach George Namake and two of the country’s master tacticians the late Aggrey Andika and legendary Tom Munyama.

“The missionaries hooked us to Christ through basketball. In 1972, I suffered burns at Baptist court in a harrowing incident that changed my life completely. My legs were burnt by tar as the court was getting a facelift,” he recalls.

This incident, he narrates completely changed his life forever as from then on he found himself 'married' to the game of basketball and he became its servant.

Waringo tasted his first championship at 13 when Baptist Mini Bucks dismissed Maida in the provincial championships. They also qualified for the National Championships in Nakuru after beating defending champions Nakuru Flaming mini club 28-20 in the finals.

He got his first call up to the Nairobi Combined team in 1978 while in Form Five at Upper Hill and joined the national team the following year but did not make the final squad to Harare, Zimbabwe after being dropped under what he calls mysterious circumstances.

“We had trained well and I knew I would make the cut. But on the day of travel, Jaffred Amugune and Alexander Mbakaya and myself were told to wait at Kencom while the team assembled somewhere in Embakasi," he says.

“We waited until 2pm then we decided to return home well aware that we had been tricked. That is how we missed the trip and I swore never to play for the national side again. That’s how I got nicknamed Harare.”

In 1981, he joined Kenextel and had Charles Oyaro, Amos Omole, Dave Kariuki and Jason Ngumba as his team mates. The team beat Kenya Cargo Handlers (now KPA) in 1981 to claim the KECOSO title.

“We went on to beat dreaded teams like Barclays Bank Eagles in subsequent national championships."

In 1986, Waringo ventured into coaching, a career he has enjoyed to date. He took over the youthful Baptist Bucks where he nurtured former KCB Lions and national team guard George Owino, John Chasimba and Joshua Rutuna.

He made Baptist a household name as the undisputed Kenya Youth Champions producing greats talents like Posta and national team's Peter Otieno.

In 1987, he became the founding coach of Posta ladies team and made history by winning the inaugural Del Monte-sponsored national classic league a year latter. It was at Posta where Waringo’s star started to shine.

He paraded a star-studded Posta side that was led by the late Caroline Omamo, who moved to the USA and starred at Abilene Christian University in Texas. The other key players were Susan Kariuki and Miriam Owiti, who also moved to America.

The trio made Posta such a darling of the crowd and were members of the Kenyan team to the 1994 World Championships in Australia.

“I enjoyed the services of a wonderful team. It had household names like the late Omamo, Eddah Khamala, Stellah Ogada, Susan Kariuki, Emily Nafuna, Sophie Mohammed, Wilkister Akinyi, Mary Edith Akinyi, Ruth Maina, Grace Chechumba among many others.

“I majorly owe foundation of what I am today to Baptist Buck where I started off my coaching career as well as Posta ladies. The performance of Posta at the national classic league gave me my first appointment to the national women’s team in 1988 as Kenya celebrated 10 years of Nyayo Era,” he said.

After success at Posta, Gitau joined the varsity family by moving to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Jkuat) in 1994. He took charge of the ladies team, “Lynx”

But when Jack Arum, who was in charge of the men’s side 'the Stray Cats' moved to Moi University, Waringo was given the responsibility of handling the two Juja sides.

He guided the Stray Cats to the lower Division league seven months later as the team produced some of the best college players like James Adede, Wilson Kibet and Chris Odhiambo.

Waringo then left JKUAT and joined Kenyatta University in 2002 where he took over the “Pirates and Oryx” teams. A year latter, Pirates joined the Premier League after 14 years absence during the days of the first chairman Eliud Owalo.

The key players in the team were Joseph Nyaga, Emmanuel Agunda, Manasseh Otieno, Hannington Sitati, captain Aaron Abuya, Phil Neri, Paul ‘Carlos’ Ojuoga, Samuel Kyalo and Chris Kyalo.

“These were the players who transformed KU. They were household names and in fact they were the ones who coined the team's name — Pirates. They were a really good team that believed in togetherness,” observes Waringo.

Waringo says the institution has also produced outstanding women players like Rita Onyango, Beryl Millungo, Sharon Odera to mention but a few. The sky, he says, is the limit.

Admittedly, he observed that none reached the pinnacle Griffin Ligare, the greatest point guard in KU history and the national team. The Morans captain guided the team to the silver medal in the first Fiba Africa AfroChan championships in Bamako, Mali last year.

“When I joined Kenyatta University, I was a young boy, Waringo was our basketball coach and he helped me grow up into a man,” Ligare says.

“He taught us the importance of playing as a unit and how to function in that set up, a trait that keeps me going in my current team since.”

“The coach believed in preparation and paying attention to details. We were subjected to this under his leadership and this was a great take away for all of us as it is key to success even beyond basketball. I am so grateful to all the values he instilled in us,” adds Ligare.

Oryx, on the other hand, prides themselves in producing assistant national team captain Betty Kananu, who has come out as one of the games deadliest shooting stars.

She has worked hard and made the team that did duty for Kenya in last year’s Fiba AfroBasket in Dakar, Senegal, she has also led national champions Equity Bank to stardom both locally and regionally.

“Waringo was stern on discipline during training or game days. He always insisted on punctuality. He is a believer of work hard during training and easy play during games,” Kananu says.

“He would make our training so hard but then the games would be better. He always believed that his players should be each others keeper both the men’s team and the ladies. This ensured there was team work on and off the courts.”

Waringo has also nurtured some of his former players who are doing so well as coaches amongst them is Tony Ochieng, who guided Strathmore University Blades to second and a slot in the Fiba Africa Zone five championships in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2019.

Ochieng says: “I have known coach Waringo for the longest time, being my first coach at KU. He is a great mentor who inspired us to different levels.”

“He knew how to tackle different situations and as a team member performed well and got promoted to the top league in 2004. As one of his student, I still get a lot of advice from him. He has a lot of respect to his former players.”

Morans assistant coach Colins Gaya notes: “In 1998, Waringo coached us for three weeks at the under-20 team that was going to Egypt. He was very competitive, taught us basic fundamentals of the game. 80 per cent of the players in that team went on to play in the Premier League. Some went to America.”

“For the years I have been at KU, I have guided many players into taking up coaching roles. I am sure there is no one who has done it better and this makes me happy,” Waringo says.

Caleb Osewe, the Nairobi Basketball Association (NBA) fixtures secretary quips: “I knew Waringo in 1985. When I played against him as a Kisumu Posta player. He featured for Nairobi Posta. He was a very tricky and intelligent point guard who noticeably took charge whenever he was inside that basketball court.”

“A very outgoing personality who easily interacted with everyone. We became close friends when I joined Nairobi Posta. A very welcoming person who would crack jokes, which by virtue created team chemistry. He was later to be appointed by the management to start the Posta’s ladies team, which had an exemplary performance for a very long time," Osewe adds.

"His leadership skills has made him draw a better scorecard in the basketball fraternity. Currently, we coach together at the institution where he is the head coach. A great disciplinarian who has changed lives within the university as a whole. At times he likes to be referred to as the slave of basketball. He initiated leadership skills which have seen Pirates and Oryx high on the map of the East African Universities Sports fraternity."

In September last year, Waringo led Pirates to Shandong Normal University- China, for a three week historic cultural/bilateral exchange program.

“We made history as the only African University team to ever have visited China. As worthy ambassadors, we vowed not to betray our continent. We beat the home team 87- 59 in their 7,500 seater indoor arena in our opening game.”

He went on: “In our second game, against a combined Shandong Province Players, we again went on to humiliate them 74-62 and I was told the team had never lost to any team in their home ground.”

Gitau, the self proclaimed “slave” of basketball is a married man and has five boys and two girls. He is also a grandfather of five.

But while Gitau has spent most of his time on one sport — basketball — none of his children have followed in his footsteps but are engaged in other disciplines like kickboxing, football and handball.

"My plans and prayers are that one of my grandchildren will follow my footsteps and become a good basketball player,” he concludes.