Watching basketball on TV when she was young sparked women’s basketball junior guard Filipa Calisto to start playing the sport in her hometown of Beira, Mozambique.
At the time, she said she learned that a facility near her house taught basketball through a former classmate. Calisto went on to play on on Mozambique’s 16 & Under National Team in 2015 and played for the FIBA U18 Women’s African Championship in 2018. She subsequently earned a spot the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup, an international youth women’s basketball competition.
The sport then brought her to the United States between 2022-23, where she played at New Mexico Junior College and transferred to compete with the Revolutionaries this season. At GW so far, she averages 5.6 points per game, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists on 45.2 percent field goal efficiency while playing off the bench. She scored her season high of 15 points, shooting 3-4 in 3-pointers against Saint Louis, on Jan. 15.
Prior to joining the Revolutionaries, Calisto averaged 11.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game on 45.7 percent shooting during her sophomore year at New Mexico Junior College. After a breakout rookie year, Calisto earned National Junior College Athletic Association All-Academic Team honors.
“I was looking for an environment that simulates a little bit more with back home, like the coast side of the area, so D.C. was just a perfect fit,” Calisto said of her transfer to GW.
The junior guard described experiencing a “culture shock” that came from first moving to the United States from Mozambique with only “basic knowledge” of English as a native Portuguese speaker, a transition that pushed her to juggle learning a new language with adjusting to a seven-hour time difference and new foods.
“It was a good experience, and it has been a good experience so far, but at that time, it was just a lot to take,” she said. “I’m glad that I just did it in the right way.”
Calisto, a geological sciences major, said the dynamics of GW’s team, its coaches and the University’s academics drew her to Foggy Bottom for her transfer, as well as the bustling nature of D.C. and its diversity. She said the women’s basketball team talks about “everything” off the court and enjoys quality time when they can get to know each other, though she called herself a “little bit quiet.”
“As international, this is something that really matters, having people to talk — even though I don’t talk a lot — but just the fact that they check on me, just texting, shooting a message, ‘Okay, let’s go grab a dinner,’ or something or just having movie nights or just meeting inclusive, like we’re going to do something tonight together,” Calisto said.
Calisto said her parents are her biggest supporters, especially her dad. She said all of her family is back home in Mozambique, so they don’t have much time to talk except on weekends when they video call using FaceTime and WhatsApp.
“He was the first one saying ‘Yes,’” Calisto said of her dad. “I was not expecting that, but he was the first one to step in, saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to support you with whatever makes you happy, and we’re going to do everything to make it happen.”
Calisto said she picked up the skill of intensity from her early experiences playing AfroBasket due to the physical contact and “aggressiveness” that came with competing against talented players in the tournament.
“I would say that this is something that made me grow as well, having that contact early in my life, how should I look at the basketball life, like having a different perspective,” she said. “If you’re playing at that level, what you should expect and then with that experience, you just carry throughout your life and your basketball career as well.”
Calisto said coaching in the United States is more direct and a little “easier to understand” compared to Mozambique, where the game pace is faster and coaches are more hands-off with players. She said her coaches at GW are “always there” to make players improve and help with whatever they need.
“What I see from my coaches, the way that they guide us, is something that I can see myself doing to guide other people as well,” Calisto said. “So it’s just like a mirror. I see something and then I try to reproduce that.”
Despite her strong bonds and performances, Calisto said she is still adjusting to the new style of play and coaching after playing a different type of basketball with JUCO for two-and-a-half years. She said she’s putting in the “extra work” of talking to coaches about her strengths and weaknesses while helping her teammates out.
One of these strengths has been 3-point shooting, with Calisto having the highest percentage on the team, shooting 32.5% on 2.0 shots per game.
She said her main aspiration right now is to finish her degree, as well as a possible master’s degree, and finding a job in her field. She also expressed interest in playing overseas in France or China for one or two seasons.
“I’m still learning with a new team system, what the coaches want me to do,” Calisto said. “It is a challenge every day, but I’m just there willing to learn.”
