Val Nainima - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Michigan Athletics

Val Nainima

Title:
Assistant Coach

Val Nainima enters her second season as an assistant coach for the Wolverines in 2022-23. Nainima, who played collegiately at South Carolina and competes internationally for Fiji, spent seven seasons at Fordham, starting as video coordinator in 2014-15 before serving as an assistant coach for four seasons (2017-21). She coaches the point guards at Michigan.

The 2021-22 season was full of highlights for the Maize and Blue, who advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. U-M went 25-7 on the season, the second-best win total and highest winning percentage in program history. The Wolverines picked up eight wins over ranked teams, again setting a new program standard. Michigan was ranked in both polls throughout the season, garnering the first top-five and top-10 rankings in school history. U-M finished No. 12 in the AP poll and No. 7 in the USA Today Coaches poll, both program highs. The Wolverines hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a No. 3 seed, recording wins over American and Villanova to punch their Sweet 16 ticket for the second straight season before knocking out South Dakota to advance. U-M went 16-0 at Crisler Center, the first undefeated home season in program history, while averaging 3,676 fans.

Hillmon was a unanimous and consensus All-Big Ten first teamer, making her the first player in program history to earn four first-team nods. She also earned All-America first-team honors from the WBCA, USBWA, Associated Press, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated and the Wooden Award. Leigha Brown was named to the All-Big Ten second team, with Laila Phelia grabbing a spot on the freshman team. The Wolverines put 10 on the Academic All-Big Ten team, while Brown, Maddie Nolan, Danielle Rauch and Emily Kiser were named CoSIDA Academic All-District.

Nainima spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Fordham, helping the Rams to three postseason appearances, including the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The Rams strung together three 20-win seasons during that time, with only the shortened 2020-21 season falling short. She served as acting head coach for a game during the 2020-21 season, helping Fordham to a 72-58 win over Hofstra. During her tenure, she worked with back-to-back Atlantic 10 Player of the Year in Bre Cavanaugh (2019-20) and Anna DeWolfe (2020-21).

Nainima hails from Rakiraki, Fiji, where she worked as a development officer and high performance manager for Basketball Fiji. She coordinated and launched the first Hoops for Health Workshop program for Fiji and the South Pacific, while also planning and managing the Tuckers Fiji Secondary Schools Championships. She trained and mentored the Fiji National U19 teams to the 2014 FIBA USP U19 Oceania Championships, an event she helped organize in its inaugural year.

Nainima has competed with her country's senior team since she was 17 years old, serving as its captain for the last 11 years. She most recently competed with Fiji at the 2019 FIBA Pacific Games, averaging 16.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game in helping Fiji to a runner-up finish.

During her collegiate playing days, Nainima began her career at LIU Brooklyn and finished at South Carolina. Nainima was first player in Northeast Conference history to earn player of the year and rookie of the year honors in the same season after finishing as the nation's top-scoring freshman (17.3 ppg). During her sophomore season, Nainima averaged 20.4 points per game and was the fastest player in LIU history to reach 1,000 career points.

After transferring to South Carolina and playing for current US Olympic head coach Dawn Staley, Nainima averaged 17.3 points per game as a junior en route to All-SEC second-team honors. She then suffered an injury late in the summer before her senior season, but Nainima fought to come back for the final three months of her final year. She ended her career as one of the program's most prolific three-point shooters, graduating eighth in career triples (115), 10th in career attempts (340) and fourth in three-point field goal percentage (.338). Nainima graduated from South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management and Marketing.

Nainima went on to play professionally in Germany for New Basket Oberhausen and spent three seasons with the team. She also coached an U17 team in the organization as well.