Virginia Tech and Megan Duffy added Jessica Dimaro on Tuesday. (Nick Brown)

Jessica Dimaro 
6-3, Center 
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria 
Class of 2026 

Virginia Tech and Megan Duffy announced the signing of Jessica Dimaro on Tuesday morning.


<script async="" src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The 6-foot-3 center ventures to Blacksburg by way of Kariya, Japan, where she spent two seasons in the W League with the Toyota Boshoku Sunshine Rabbits. She was the W League Rookie of the Year in 2024-25.

In 2025-26, Dimaro averaged 12.0 points and 9.7 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from the field (152-for-287) and posting 13 double-doubles.

A native of Yenagoa in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, Dimaro is another product of a Nigeria-Japan-United States pipeline in the women's basketball world.

In the W League, she played alongside 6-foot-3 Uche Izoje, who was last year's ACC Rookie of the Year at Syracuse after averaging 16.8 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. The 21-year-old, who was a two-time WJBL All-Star and the league's 2024 rookie of the year, took the ACC by storm and was an all-conference first-team selection. The Daily Orange detailed Izoje's global path to Upstate New York from Nigeria and Japan, which mentioned Dimaro.

At Mississippi State, Favour Nwaedozi averaged 12.2 points and 10.0 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs in 2025-26 while shooting 52.3 percent from the field. She ventured to Starkville from Nishinomiya, Japan, where she starred at Mukogawa Women’s University. Nwaedozi and Izoje are both from the Delta State of Nigeria, which borders the Delta State that Dimaro calls home.

She's not the first Nigerian connection in the Hokies' program, though. Associate head coach Itoro Coleman, who was a Hall of Fame player at Clemson, captained the Nigerian National Team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Dimaro arrives at Virginia Tech as a 20-year-old and is expected to have three years of eligibility based on the NCAA's new model. A player's eligibility clock now begins when they first enroll in college or the academic year after they turn 19, whichever comes first. Dimaro turns 21 in mid-July.

As far as the Hokies' roster goes, she's the 13th scholarship player for 2026-27 and the second international addition, joining Italian Francesca Baldassarre. Click here for more information.