Senior Sibelle Zambie furthers her passion for basketball and her want to make an impact through her capstone project: Splash With Sibelle.
According to Zambie, basketball has been a passion ever since she was a kid, as the sport is prevalent in her family. Her dad played for The College of Wooster, and both of her older brothers are currently playing for The University of Texas at Tyler.
“I’ve always loved playing basketball,” Zambie said. “I think it was what I was best at and what I enjoyed playing the most. I was always smiling when I played.”
Before moving to Greenhill, Zambie attended Plano West Senior High School and played for their woman’s basketball team. She averaged five three-pointers per game.
“That was a highlighted memory for me, and I thought I could see myself doing that in the future,” Zambie said.
Sibelle transferred to Greenhill in tenth grade and made an immediate impact on the girls basketball program. While she received interest from various colleges, Zambie committed to her first official offer which was from Lehigh University.
“I had been to Boston and California, but the Lehigh coaching staff checked on me consistently, invited me to watch practices, and told me how they could really see me fitting into the system,” Zambie said.
Lehigh University is a Division I sports school and the women’s basketball team was ranked fourth in three-pointers made per game in the 2022-2023 season.
“Shooting threes is my style,” Zambie said. “I could have gone to some bigger conferences, but I wanted to go somewhere where I knew I’d have a chance to play early on, and I wouldn’t have to wait until junior year to start getting minutes.”
To better prepare for her college basketball career, Zambie played for ProSkills 17U, one of the 32 Nike teams in the nation. The team competed in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in the summer.
“It was an honor to be on the team and play everyone from all around the world,” Zambie said. “I’m really grateful that I got to experience the Nike basketball circuit.”
As a reflection of her passion for basketball, Zambie decided to make her senior capstone project titled ‘Splash with Sibelle.’ The project aims to educate young female athletes via social media platforms.
“My capstone is building a social media brand and kind of giving back to the community, especially younger girls,” Zambie said. “I never really had a female role model. It was always a guy that was coaching or teaching.”
Her account, @splashwithsibelle, is established on both Instagram and TikTok, where she consistently posts basketball drills and participates in shooting challenges.
“When I was a kid, I loved watching videos to learn about basketball and find ways to make myself better,” Zambie said.
One recent shooting challenge Zambie participated in was making 44 three-point shots in a row, which she called the “hashtag Summer Splash challenge.”
“I posted myself making 44 threes in a row, and I was telling people to post with the hashtag when they do the challenge,” Zambie said.
According to Zambie, she hopes to create content she loves and believes is helpful for her audience.
“I post anything I think is fun for people to see or things I would have liked to see when I was a kid,” Zambie said. “I definitely want to keep building my brand up.”
She says she hopes to continue ‘Splash with Sibelle’ even after high school because women’s empowerment is important to her. Zambie currently stands as president of two woman empowerment-focused clubs: Women in STEM and Women in Sports.
“Through this, I want to be that role model for little girls like me when I didn’t have one,” Zambie said.
