Burzis Kanga

Burzis Kanga is a college tennis coach that is more known for being the ex-husband of NBC News anchor and journalist, Hoda Kotb.

Background

Burzis is a native of Tanzania in East Africa. The tennis coach never shared his real birthdate and age with the media. There is not much information available publicly regarding his personal details like his parents, studies, childhood and siblings. The hardworking coach has had avid interest in sports since he was a young boy. He was fond of tennis because he enjoyed the solo aspect of the game. He wasn’t a fan of team sports because he liked taking responsibility for his actions. On a team, the blame and credit can often be shared among members even when some members didn’t do anything. In a solo sport like tennis, the individual player is responsible for the rise and fall of their own results.

Marriage to a Famous News Anchor

Burzis Kanga. the ex-tennis coach of the University of New Orleans got married to Hoda Kotb, a famous news anchor and host in 2005. Their much talked about marriage lasted only for two years after which the two filed a divorce. They had no children but it was a good thing that they didn’t. If they had children before their divorce, their children would have had to deal with the broken marriage of their parents. They were commended by people around them for recognizing that the marriage was not going to work out. Once they realized that they weren’t compatible, they quickly tried to adjust and make a change in their lives. It would have been pointless and a waste of time for them to try to repair a relationship that was not worth being in for either of them. The couple got divorced in 2007, it was also a time when Hoda got diagnosed with breast cancer.

The two signed the divorce papers on Valentine’s Day. It was ironic that their split came on a holiday that is meant to celebrate love. They were doing the opposite and breaking away from each other. It was also the same occasion when Hoda and Burzis had met for the first time and said to have fell for each other at first sight. Burzis was very smitten with Hoda and wanted to marry his new girlfriend soon.

All the memories of love and good times quickly faded away. Hoda cited that the reason for signing the divorces papers on the occasion was her being least fond of Valentine’s Day. She no longer thought of it as a nice holiday. She only had bad memories of it now.

Hoda said that her ex-husband has always been nice to her and has been a reason behind her success but never disclosed the real reason behind the abrupt decision of divorcing him. This mystery lead to rumors of Kanga being a gay or being involved in an extra-marital affair, none of which was ever confirmed. There was also a buzz that the divorce was triggered by the rumors of Hoda having a side boyfriend.

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After his separation with Hoda Kotb, Burzis was reported seeing anyone else and seems happily involved in his single life and his career. Burzis is now totally away from the paparazzi and media, making the questions about his marriage even louder because he won’t address them.

Tennis Career

During a stretch between 1980 to 1983, Burzis was a member of Privateer Tennis program. In his four seasons, he helped the team win over 50 matches. He completed his Bachelors Degree in Business while playing tennis for his college. Kanga was a bright student during his college days. He also was a professional player of tennis on satellite tennis circuits for Mexico, USA and Europe. He returned to Lakefront in 2008. While playing during his first season with the Lakefront, Kanga made a remarkable 81-9 mark as a senior and earned the record of being the only member of UNO tennis team to receive All-American honors. Kanga also has a United States Tennis Association Professional 1 certification. He was the top-ranked player in Louisiana for the under-21 age group. In 1982, he was invited for India's Davis Cup team.

Burzis Kanga was the person who brought back the University Tennis Center to life and is appreciated for his tenure as the sports Commissioner for the 1996 AAU Junior Olympic games. Burzis was a board member of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation for a long time.

He is now serving as a head coach for the ninth year to New Orleans Privateers. Burzis is very motivated when it comes to tennis and has coached his team to victory in many matches and is considered to be a very influential and hard-working coach.

When asked by his college blog about how hard it is to start a sports program from the ground up, Burzis was eager to share his wisdom, “ The first thing that you are doing is trying to get the word out about your programs and communicate with your recruits the legitimate concerns that they may have. The most challenging thing is recruiting and convincing these players whether they are local, national or international that the city is coming back stronger than ever. I look at the positives what the city and the university has to offer. I tell them about the scheduling; the coaching and that they are being part of something special. If they come to UNO, they are going to be part of not only rebuilding the program, but also rebuilding the university and the city.

So, the number one thing for me, building a program from the beginning has to get the word out, that we are in the recovery mode, that we are stronger than ever. What we did not have then, we have now. We have 26 courts at our state of the art facility. We want to have a program that will compete against the nationally ranked teams in the country. The challenge of recruiting is what it is, but we have goals that we are expecting to achieve.”

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