Women's Basketball | 7/18/2025 10:00:00 AM
York University Lions women's basketball head coach Christa Eniojukan is spending part of her summer making a giant impact on youth basketball players hailing from African nations.
The York bench boss will serve as a guest coach at the second Giants of Africa Festival, which will take place from July 26-August 2 in Kigali, Rwanda. The festival is a flagship event of the organization founded by former Toronto Raptors Vice-Chairman & President Masai Ujiri, who grew up in Nigeria. It was first held in 2023 and is billed by the Giants of Africa website as, "a week of community, culture, basketball, education and entertainment," which will, "serve as a unifying force that ignites potential and catalyzes change across the continent."
The event will feature 320 youth from 20 African countries who will participate in a multitude of activities. Among them is the festival's International Youth Day Forum on July 27, which will unite 2,000 Rwandan youth for a day of engaging, motivational speeches from a variety of speakers along with educational and engaging workshops.
Additionally, a youth basketball camp and tournament will be held from July 28-31. The tournament will be held in a round-robin format to determine which nations will advance to the championship games on Aug. 1.
Eniojukan, who enters her fifth season as York's women's head coach, will also serve as a clincian and mentor coach to the country team basketball coaches throughout the festival. They will partake in various development clinics and gain knowledge they can use to grow the game of basketball locally.
Eniojukan takes great pride in the opportunity to make a difference, and says the impact of the event goes well beyond the court.
"The Festival is a chance to inspire young players and grow alongside fellow coaches," says the former Lions guard (2003-05). "It's about more than the game; it's about lasting impact and humanity."
Upon her return to York, Eniojukan will begin readying her team for a strong preseason ahead of their regular season opener against the Waterloo Warriors on Oct. 25 at 6:00 pm from the Tait McKenzie Centre.
