Volleyball star Tumukunde among Makerere best students

Tumukunde during warm ups. PHOTOS/EMANZI NDYAMUHAKI
What you need to know:
The 22-year old was among the 13,658 Makerere University students celebrating completion of their studies this week and is one of the top performers with a First Class Honours in Bachelor of Statistics.
From the time Doretta Tumukunde started picking interest in the game of volleyball, the reactions from her two parents were mixed.
Her father, Stephen Rwamahe, who is an academician, was strongly against the idea of mixing sports and education while the mother, Janepher Rwamahe, trusted her daughter to strike a balance and excel on both fronts.
And years later, Tumukunde has walked the talk by excelling on the volleyball court with Sport-S Ladies and bagging a first class degree in school.
The 22-year old was among the 13,658 Makerere University students celebrating completion of their studies this week and is one of the top performers with a First Class Honours in Bachelor of Statistics.
Her graduation came close to a month after helping Makerere University clinch volleyball bronze in the Eastern Africa University Games held in Maseno, Kenya in December.
Early start
With no one in her family playing volleyball let alone any sport, Tumukunde’s connection to the game started through her sister’s friend, who happened to be a volleyball coach.
“It was during my P.7 vacation and I was with my sister in Mbarara, coach Alex (Mbaine) came to visit and asked if I would love to try it,” Tumukunde said.
Luckily for her, Mbaine happened to be the volleyball coach at Bweranyangi Girls School, where she was going to start her secondary education.
“He told me he was the coach there and asked me to try out once I reported to school.
“My sister is also married to someone who was already into volleyball and he talked to me about it. When time came and I joined Bweranyangi, I already had an idea and I found their coach Alex and started training.”
The middle blocker used the ample time Senior Ones have to hone her craft.
No interest
With no member of the family involved in sports at any level, it was hard for Tumukunde to develop the love for volleyball.
It took time for her to pick the interest and that affected her development in the game at the start.
“When I kept training, I saw more girls playing and I started believing that with more training, I could become a better player and enjoy the game.”
Going into her Senior Two, the middle-blocker lost her coach, who had introduced her to the game before leaving Bweranyangi.
“I slide back a bit because he was important to me, he had introduced me to the game and I was still learning.”
Tumukunde’s actual growth in the game started when she left Bweranyangi after O’level to join Mary Hill High School in Mbarara for A’level.
Joining Mary Hill was never part of the plan, though. Tumukunde is an Anglican and had not considered Mary Hill, a Catholic school, while applying for A' Level placement.
It took the intervention of one Jacob Rwamahe, a teacher at Mary Hill, to convince Tumukunde’s parents to let her join the Mbarara based school.
“It took a lot of convincing for my father to allow me to join Mary Hill but he eventually decided to give it a shot.”
At Mary Hill, she found Malic Damulira, who is her current coach at Sport-S, and that marked the start of her fast development in the game.
“We had enough training time at Mary Hill and you could easily notice that I was growing in the game at a faster rate.”
Balancing act
Going higher in her education meant that the Kabwohe-born had to strike a balance between books and her new-found love.
The parents insisted on education and could only entertain her volleyball talk if the grades in school were great.
“It was really a combination of time management, prioritization and self-discipline.
“I scheduled my tasks according to their importance and deadlines. If we had an important tournament with Sport-S, I would dedicate more time to training and when school work was more demanding, I would minimize the volleyball side.”
Communication with her lecturers at school and coaches at Sport-S also helped ease the burden as both sides listened and advised accordingly.
And she did not disappoint. Her graduation on Tuesday is something she worked for ever since she stepped foot in Makerere.
Family support
Before joining Sport-S, Tumukunde had more convincing to do before her parents let her go on with the arrangement of chasing a degree while involving herself in high-level sport.
She had scored 17 points at A’level, where she did Physics, Economics, Mathematics and ICT and was going to Makerere on Government sponsorship.
When Sport-S approached her, she had to involve the parents first before making any commitments.
“At first, my father was not open to the idea. He is an academician and always focused more on academics and saw sports as a hindrance.
“But I thank my mum so much because she was always supportive and he hopes that I can reach the level of playing for the national team.
“With my mum and siblings supporting me, my father eventually gave me his blessing to go and play.”
Tuesday’s achievement of a First Class degree is what Tumukunde wanted to confirm to her father that balancing academics and sports is hard but not impossible.
“When I got my first year results and I had a First Class, my dad then started to believe that I was actually studying and not only playing volleyball. Then he started to believe that it is possible.
“Since then, my entire family has been supportive.”

Tumukunde (in black) attacks the net.
Sacrifice
Chasing a degree and playing top flight volleyball comes with its own challenges and Tumukunde has had to face them all.
“There is a lot of social life sacrifice because you realize most of the volleyball action is during the weekend and yet on weekdays you have classes.
“I have literally not had time to interact with friends and other people socially because I was either training or playing or in class.”
She credits her discussion group for playing a huge role in her achievement.
“They made sure to schedule discussions only when I was available and that helped me catch up with whatever I could have missed.”
Big dreams
At Sport-S, Tumukunde has to fight for playing time with more senior players like Agnes Akanyo and Esther Tumwebaze and that has seen her come off the bench in most games.
She, however, harbours ambitions of one day playing for the Volleyball Cranes.
“It’s my dream to play for the national team in future and I know how hard I have to work for that.”
Despite joining the league in 2021, Tumukunde had her breakthrough in 2023 and has since started some big matches for the club and hopes to help the team clinch the elusive National Volleyball League title.
Off the court, Tumukunde has dreams of pursuing a Masters Degree and starting her career in Data Analytics.
“I will still be playing volleyball only now that more time will be dedicated to my career.”
People like Sport-S Director Warren Muhangi and coach Damulira are some of those Tumukunde talks glowingly because of their support to her.
“I really thank Warren Muhangi because he has been there for me. He is like a father to me, he is an understanding person and has always given me whatever I want. There is no time he ever said no.”
Damulira, who scouted the player to Sport-S, revealed that Tumukunde set her eye on a First Class degree immediately after joining Makerere.
“She has always been a bright student and made it clear that her goal was to get a first class. Of course it took determination, hard work and discipline and she excels in those aspects.”
Doretta Tumukunde
Date of Birth: August 5, 2002 (Age 22)
Club: Sport-S
Shirt number: 14
Role model: Ana Carolina da Silva
Schools attended: Bweranyangi Girls, Mary Hill
Profession: Statistician
Place of birth: Kabwohe, Sheema
Parents: Stephen & Janepher Rwamahe