At an impressive height of 6 feet 5 inches, Sharon Chepchumba has become a dominant force in Kenyan volleyball.
Starting her athletic journey as a football player, she made a pivotal decision to switch to volleyball, and it proved to be a game-changer.
From her humble beginnings in Kitale, Chepchumba’s talent and determination have propelled her to success both nationally and internationally, as she continues to chase her dreams on and off the court.
Speaking to People Sport, the confident ‘eye to eye’ lady, revealed that hailing from the hills of Cherengany in Kitale, all she wanted to do was play football since her primary school days and she excelled in the sport with no doubts hence earning the much-coveted scholarship at Tartar Girls High School in West Pokot for form one.
Her prowess on the football pitch attracted other scouts from other high schools, but she chose to remain at Tartar as it was close to her home until her neighbour who was playing volleyball at Kwanzanze Secondary School in Machakos, convinced her to change ship.
Chumba says that she admired and felt jealous of how the neighbour could travel across East Africa with Kwanzanze playing Volleyball and that convinced her to have a change of heart and mind from football.
She was introduced to the legendary youth coach Justin Kigwari who immediately fell in love with her athleticism and convinced her to join the school, leaving Tartar after form one hence the death of her football dreams.
“I used to cry every day as everything was different from what I was used to. The training was so tough and the team had pros that I could not even think of matching their prowess leave alone playing with them during practice,” remembered Chumba adding that one day coach Kigwari surprised her with a pair of brand-new playing sneakers and put her on the list for the travelling party to the East Africa School Games in Rwanda.
That year Kwanzanze performed extraordinarily in the East Africa region after clinching the national title in 2015, something that fired an inner motivation to Chumba, forcing her to work even harder than expected.
She made the team the following year much to the surprise of the coach and her teammates, becoming a star not only in Kenya but across East Africa as she won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the best attacker while in form three and form four both nationally and at the East Africa School Games regionally consecutively.
After graduating from high school, Kenya Prisons quickly enticed her with an employment opportunity and grabbed her signature in 2018, immediately making an impact for the Prison wardens winning them a league title and a third-place podium finish the following year in Egypt during the African Club Championships and also making the national team cut for the World Championships in Japan.
