
DATE: Wednesday, November 5, 1997           TAG: 9711050490

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DWIGHT CHAPIN, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER 

DATELINE: SAN JOSE, CALIF.                  LENGTH:  102 lines

TRANSITION GAME: FORMER ODU STAR CLARISSE MACHANGUANA IS DRIBBING PAST THE CULTURE SHOCK AGAIN AS SHE ADJUSTS TO THE ABL.

Clarisse Machanguana remembers how it was when she arrived at Old Dominion University three years ago.

She had already made one big step in her young life - going from her native Mozambique to Portugal when she was 19 to attend prep school and play basketball. That wasn't so bad.

``The culture was very similar,'' she said, ``and they spoke the same language.'' Mozambique, in southeast African, is a former Portuguese territory.

The transition to America wasn't as easy.

``It was a different culture,'' Machanguana said, ``and the language was a pain. I couldn't speak any long sentences in English, I had zero vocabulary and my grammar was just nonexistent. I was frustrated and there was a little bit of crying.''

The tears have gone, replaced by a frequent smile and an admirable confidence that comes from somewhere deep inside her.

``I do a lot of things instinctively,'' she said, in what has become nearly fluent English. ``I don't think how hard something is going to be. I just do it.''

Machanguana is now on the third leg of her grand adventure, this time from the East to West coast of the United States, as the first draft choice of the San Jose Lasers.

Once more, Machanguana is starting from scratch. She just found an apartment in San Jose. She knows almost no one in the area except her teammates and coaches. She is even farther away from her parents back in Mozambique's capital city of Maputo - parents who have seen her play only on tapes in the last six years.

``This won't be like it was at Old Dominion, where I could right away make a family,'' she said. ``I'm playing with grown people now. Everything is still too fresh yet to tell you how I feel. Maybe I can give you a better summary of that in December. But I like California.''

And it seems safe to say that Californians will like her. The more you talk to her, the more her intelligence, warmth, humor and personality come through.

Machanguana, 24, has two brothers, one of whom is now playing college basketball in Oklahoma, and a sister, who plays for a school in Montana. Her father works for the government as a medicinal drugs buyer. Her mother is a secretary.

Now 6 feet 5, slim and quick, Machanguana began dribbling a neighbor's basketball in the streets when she was 6. ``I never had a ball of my own,'' she says. She started playing at 8 on a dirt court where the hoop and backboard were nailed to a tree.

The next six years, she played mostly street ball against boys.

``In Mozambique, where basketball is the second-most popular sport to soccer, you either get involved in sports or in the (Catholic) church,'' she said. ``They're on at the same time, so you can't do both. My family went to church, but I played basketball. We didn't have school teams. There were only club teams, usually run by rich men.''

A Portuguese coach talked to coaches in Portugal about her, and she was recruited by Santarem, a championship club team for which she averaged 22 points and 13 rebounds a game.

While she was there, part-time ODU assistant coach Allison Greene, who was playing professionally in Portugal, saw her, and helped Lady Monarchs coach Wendy Larry recruit her.

It wasn't a hard sell. ``Everybody wants to come to America,'' she said. ``Basketball was my legs to get there.''

After three months of intensive English classes, Machanguana was able to take what she calls ``real'' college classes.

``But the language was still hard,'' she said. ``I had to listen to the teachers in classes and be able to communicate with my coaches on the basketball floor. Also, in Africa and Portugal, we practiced only three days a week for an hour and a half a day. At Old Dominion, it was three hours a day five days a week, and lifting weights and conditioning. It was different, and difficult.''

But in three seasons at the school, she started every game, improving her scoring average from 16.7 points a game to 18.3 to 19.9. Last season, she led the 34-2 Lady Monarchs to the NCAA Final - after a one-point, overtime victory over Stanford University in the semis - and was named a Kodak All-American.

She then became the sixth player selected in the ABL draft, and chose the second-year league over the fledgling WNBA. Machanguana has played in all nine Lasers games this season, averaging 6 points. San Jose is 2-7, last in the ABL short of a degree at Old Dominion, and she plans to take classes at San Jose State when the Lasers' season is over. She thinks she may still be playing professionally in five years. ``But not for the money, for the love of it.''

Then it will be a career in law, specializing, she said, in ``family matters like marriages and child abuse. I want to be the most successful lawyer in the country - the United States, because Mozambique is too small. I know I'd be the best there.''

Asked if her parents would be proud of her if she becomes the best lawyer in the United States one day, Machanguana smiled coyly and said: ``They already are.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

ANNA MARIE REMEDIOS

San Jose Lasers coach Angela Beck instructs former ODU star Clarisse

Machanguana, center, and Anita Kaplan, left, during a recent

practice at the San Jose Arena. Machanguana was the first draft

choice of the Lasers.

Color photo

HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

In three seasons at ODU, Machanguana improved from 16.7 points a

game to 18.3 to 19.9.