Meet Mutabazi, Rwanda’s volleyball star

VOLLEYBALL is one of Rwanda’s most popular sports disciplines, probably only second to football and, over the years, it has produced many stars, both men and women. Bonny Mutabazi is one of Rwanda’s finest volleyball players of his generation. Early days The soft-spoken sportsman started playing volleyball at a tender age. He has never played any other sport, he says. For him, Volleyball is a family thing. “I never played any other game other than volleyball, I grew up watching volleyball and it was only normal that I took it up. For me, volleyball is more of a heritage, all my brothers were volleyball players,” Mutabazi told old Saturday Sport. He says, back in primary school, he used to play mini-volleyball (a three-member team play) as the school never had a volleyball team. But when he joined secondary school in 2003, he started playing “real volleyball”. Secondary school career After joining high school, Mutabazi started playing volleyball seriously, besides it was not hard for him as he had brothers to look up to; he went on to win Southern Province’s inter-schools championship titles in 2004 and 2005 with Christ-Roi Nyanza. In 2005, he was named in the senior school team and it’s the very same year that he got the national volleyball league license. With the senior team, he won the national inter-schools title in 2005. However, after all the success for three years at Christ-Roi Nyanza, he left to join GSO Butare for A’level in 2006 and, a year later, he won his place in the school team but never won a single title. “At GSOB, I never won anything with the school team even though we were strong. In 2007, we lost to Saint Joseph Kabgayi while the following year we bowed to Christ-Roi in the national inter-schools finals. We lost both finals in five sets, 3-2,” he recalls. He also featured in the East African Post-Primary Games once with GSOB in the 2008 edition held in Kigali but they were eliminated in the group stages. In the league, while with GSOB, they finished fifth in 2006 and 2008 and fourth in 2007. League career After completing high school in 2008, Mutabazi joined the then new league side Ngoma District-based Inatek volleyball club early 2009, whom he played for for two seasons – 2009 and 2010. Inatek would finish fifth in 2009 and fourth in 2010. In early 2011, he switched to University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences (then National University of Rwanda) volleyball club and they finished second in the league, second in the Carre d’As tournament, before winning the inaugural Kayumba memorial tournament. Worst season “In 2012, I played half-way through the season. I had some disagreements with my coaches at NUR and I ended up quitting the team for the entire second-round of the league. That’s the worst season in my career so far,” he recalls. The coaching staff of the NUR team was headed by current Rayon Sports volleyball club head coach Fidele Nyirimana and his assistant Jean d’Eau Castar Bagirishya. After 2012 situation In 2013, Mutabazi would join APR volleyball club and go on to help the team finish second in the league behind his former club (NUR), reach the final of the Genocide memorial tournament, and claim the Carre d’As crown – in his first season. Now in his second season with the military side, Mutabazi is looking to win his first league title after beating archrivals Rayon Sports in both first and second round matches in the league. However, Rayon had their revenge by overcoming APR in three sets to win this year’s Genocide Memorial tournament. “Hopefully we win this year’s league title, something I have not won since 2005. We are doing everything we can to emerge champions and I’m confident we will,” he notes. In the 2014 league campaign, APR are at the summit of the log with 27 points, six ahead of Inatek with Rayon Sports nine points further behind in third place. National teams Mutabazi earned call-up for the first time in the national Under-21 team in 2008 but the team did not compete in any international competition. The following year, he was named in the team that participated in a regional championship staged in Burundi where they finished third. In 2010, he was part of a 14-player national junior team that went to Brazil for a three-month learning and training camp. It was in 2011 that Mutabazi received his first cap in the senior national team and featured in the FIVB/Africa Zone V championship hosted and won by Rwanda to qualify for 2011 All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique. Rwanda finished in the fourth place behind Cameroon, Algeria and Kenya. In 2013, he was part of the U-21 national team that finished third at the African Championship in Tunisia to qualify for U-21 World championship staged in Turkey where they finished 12th out of 20 countries. Last year, he was named in the provisional squad for 2014 World championships final round of qualifiers but did not make the final 12-member squad. Who is Mutabazi? Bonny Mutabazi was born on March 25, 1991 in Gisagara District, South Province to Telesphore Mutabazi and Clotilde Nyiramubyeyi (both deceased). He attended Gisagara B Pprimary School, before going to College du Christ-Roi Nyanza for his O’Level and then Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare for his A’ Level, majoring in Human Sciences. Next week, he will graduate with a Bachelors degree in International Economics from University of Rwanda’s College of Arts and Social Sciences. The APR VC setter is the last born in a family of ten children – seven boys and three girls. All the Mutabazi brothers and one sister played or are still playing volleyball. Another one of his sisters plays basketball. “In our family, only one of my sisters never went into sports but the rest of us are all sportsmen and women,” he says. The 23-year old looks up to his elder brother, Elie Mutabazi, the former NUR, APR and national team setter, as his inspiration and source of motivation.