Madagascar Longhorn

On the 197th episode of the GreatBase podcast, Steve Smith speaks with Nomena Raharinosy. To make an understatement, her tennis story is well worth listening to. Her journey with our sport covers three continents. (Africa, Europe, North America)

She started in a humble, low-key, no-hype tennis environment in her native Madagascar. From there, she was fortunate to spend several of her formative years in Paris, France. Her next adventure was spending the last two years of her high school days at a Florida-based academy. She was awarded a (US) college scholarship at the end of her junior career. 

Nomena enjoyed many highlights as a player. One would be representing her country in numerous international events. Another would be becoming a Texas Longhorn for life.

While playing for the University of Texas, she won the type of match that would make a movie script. She had the challenge of winning the last match out in the semi-finals of the NCAA national team championships. Her win clinched her team's trip to the final. With the opportunity, the girls wearing Burnt Orange won the coveted national title. 

Nomena now lives in Canada with her husband and their two children. She runs a business with one of her first childhood tennis friends. She also watches her children work on tennis fundamentals. One connection that helps ensure her confidence in the GreatBase pathway is that she now knows that two boys (Clayton Stanley and Chad Clark) who played at Texas when she did were brought up with the same scientific-based information.