Kundai Maguranyanga wants to shift base

AFTER spending almost two years on an athletics scholarship at Drake University, promising Zimbabwean sprinter Kundai Maguranyanga is now seeking greener pastures at another college in the United States.

Maguranyanga (22) wants to move from Iowa’s Drake University to Texas Christian University in Texas to re-unite with the man who discovered him when he was still a high school pupil at Pamushana High School in Masvingo — Darryl Anderson.

Maguranyanga first caught the attention of the world renowned American sprints coach Anderson when he visited Zimbabwe towards the end of August 2016 where he conducted a workshop for athletes and coaches at NUST in Bulawayo in collaboration with the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe.

And, after watching Maguranyanga clocking an astonishing 5,83 seconds in a 60-metre dash, Anderson was impressed by the young Zimbabwean sprinter’s talent and said his performance makes him eligible for an athletics scholarship at any top university in the United States.

Maguranyanga won himself a four-year athletics scholarship at Drake University after he was convinced to join the Iowa-based college by fellow Zimbabwean Ngoni Makusha.

Makusha, a bronze medallist for Zimbabwe in the men’s long jump at the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, was at that time an assistant coach for sprints, hurdles and jumps at Drake University.

But Makusha has since left Drake University and is now coaching at the University of California in the United States.

Maguranyanga is no longer “feeling at home” at Drake University following the departure of his fellow Zimbabwean.

“Kundai has already submitted a transfer portal to the authorities at Drake University and as soon as his name is in the transfer portal they won’t be able to stop him.

“The dangers are that if those universities which were promising him scholarships disappear, he is in trouble.

“However, there are four coaches who have already contacted him for his signature but he wants to move to Texas Christian University where he will re-united with Darryl Anderson and I don’t think there will be any complications in this move,” the source told The Herald yesterday.

So what is this transfer portal? Essentially, it’s a database of every player or athlete who has interest in transferring from his or her current school.

The portal includes every collegiate sport, so a coach could theoretically track the athletes’ transfers.

How does a student-athlete enter his/her name into the portal?

According to ESPN, it’s very simple:

They go to their school’s compliance department and tell them they want to be entered into the transfer portal. Some schools ask the student-athlete to tell the coach first, but once a player goes to compliance and makes the request, they have 48 hours to be entered into the portal.

Compliance and/or the coaching staff can’t say no; they can only delay it for a day or two. At the end of the day, the transfer request has to be fulfilled.

Once a student-athlete’s name is in the portal, schools can begin to contact him/her — unless the student-athlete puts “do not contact” on the entry. Also, being in the portal doesn’t necessarily mean the athlete is leaving. A player can remove his/her name from the portal.

Prior to his arrival at Drake University, Maguranyanga was placed second in 200m at 2017 Junior African Games and was placed first with Zimbabwe 4x100m relay team at the same championships in Algeria.