Navarro's Paulete Mbuangi had a difficult worldwide trek before becoming a hoops star

Navarro senior Paulete Mbuangi scored 54 points in a basketball game recently.

It might not rank in the top 10 things she’s done in her life.

Mbuangi has become one of the better girls basketball players in the Austin area the past three years, but her story off the court is even more impressive than what she’s done on it. The past decade of her life can only be described as fascinating and represents a case of determination, intelligence and pure willpower.

Simply put, there’s a lot that went into creating the player who averages more than 28 points, nine rebounds and six steals and has caught the eye of several Division II schools and junior colleges.

Growing up around the world

Mbuangi, who cuts an athletic figure and has an infectious smile, is originally from central Angola. After spending most of her childhood there, her family decided to try for a better life in Brazil, though both of her parents had work visas for the United States.

Life in São Paulo didn’t turn out as expected, with Mbuangi and her mother selling Crocs on the street to be able to buy food, and after a year, the family decided it was time to head to America.

The decision might have been an easy one, but there were obstacles to getting here.

There was no money for airfare, so Mbuangi and seven family members went through a series of bus rides, boat rides and long hikes and walks over several months to reach an immigration center in northern Mexico. Describing the trip as “a pretty dangerous situation,” she said she went days without food and water while being led by paid guides through the Colombian mountains and forest, had to dodge poisonous snakes and other animals, and had to be wary of other travelers on the trek.

“A lot of people die,” she said.

Out of Colombia, Mbuangi ended up on foot most of the time while going through Panama, El Salvador and Guatemala.

When she eventually reached the immigration center in Mexico, she and her family spent three months waiting for their names to be called, during which she had to beg for food on the street if she wanted to eat.

Language, though, wasn’t an issue — at least after a month. As she did with Portuguese while in Brazil, she taught herself Spanish and became fluent. In late 2019, she and her family got the official word from the U.S. government to enter the country, and they eventually wound up in Austin … just in time for the pandemic to hit.

Basketball life

When Vikings coach John Nelson first saw Mbuangi, she was wearing a mask outside the school gym and expressed interest in playing the sport.

But Mbuangi wasn’t the typical curious freshman. She had never played basketball before, didn’t know the rules and didn’t speak English, having been in the country just a short time. She was intrigued by the sport because of an older sister who played it in Brazil and how it helped her make friends.

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Mbuangi and Nelson communicated at first by Google Translate on phones, and it didn’t take long for her to realize that she wanted to play the sport for her entire high school career.

“In my second practice, there was this girl going at me hard, and I really liked the sport and wanted to do well,” she said. “So I wanted to practice harder to beat this girl the next year.”

That started the growth process for Mbuangi — who learned English in less than a year — as a player who went through many phases. She started out as a post, turned into a force in the paint her sophomore year and then evolved the past two seasons into a player who can play all five positions and shoot from anywhere.

“I’ve never seen a kid learn to shoot that quickly,” Nelson said. “This season she’s a great shooter, ball-handler and defender. … I can’t take credit for it, and sometimes it baffles me because I don’t see a lot of kids improve at that rate. But she’s also the kid that stays after practice to get up extra shots, make sure the basketballs get picked up and make sure the coaches don’t need anything before she goes. And she’s been like that for four years.”

Mbuangi describes herself as a “confident” player as and someone who “can do everything.”

It’s helped the Vikings become the talk of the school.

Navarro made the playoffs a year ago after a four-year absence, but this season it blew by the 20-win mark and finished second in District 24-5A.

“The other students are always saying ‘hi’ and supporting us,” said Mbuangi, who also runs track for the Vikings. “The success we’re having means a lot to us. We have a goal to win a playoff game, and it means a lot to see the hard work we’ve put in working out.”

A true student-athlete

Off the court, Mbuangi is also an inspirational story.

Ever since Nelson told her how grading works in the U.S. educational system, she’s been a straight-A student.

As a senior, she spends a class period each day as a Spanish translator for other students, and she will have her pick of numerous colleges to attend if she doesn’t play basketball at the next level.

“She’s one of the best students and athletes in this school, and she basically had no advantages,” Nelson said. “Four years ago she was new to the country, didn’t understand the language and didn’t understand the culture."

Understandably, Mbuangi has aspirations to go to law school and be an immigration lawyer.

And if that doesn’t work out, she can always be a translator for one of the five languages she speaks, including French and Lingala.

"She doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer” when it comes to learning, Nelson said.

Playoff perspective

Navarro will face Pflugerville on Monday in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs. A win would be the program’s first postseason victory this century and a huge boost to an athletic department that hasn’t had a ton of playoff appearances.

But in the big picture, the outcome is irrelevant for what defines Mbuangi as a person.

She’s already battled lifetimes of adversity and come out on the other end.

“She takes basketball seriously,” Nelson said. “And I think that she’s able to deal with a high level of pressure because, unlike a lot of high school kids, she already has the context of a real life already lived.”

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Navarro's Paulete Mbuangi an inspirational basketball star