FORMER Fiji Pearls captain, netball administrator and current chair of the Netball Fiji transition committee, Vasiti Vugakoto, understands there is a lot to be done by her and her fellow committee members to get the sporting body back on track.
Vugakoto was selected to chair the committee when she met with her fellow seven members for their first meeting last Saturday.
In being given the role, she is assisted by co-chair RubyAnn Sorovaki and secretary Alumeci Vosararawa-Sachs.
Times Sport interviewed Vugakoto via phone on Tuesday of what this role meant for her and what responsibilities will be taken on by the transition committee she will co-lead with Sorovaki.
Vugakoto is a Fijian sporting luminary with a career that began in 1985 when she represented Fiji in volleyball against a visiting Japanese team, debuting in 1986 for the Fiji Pearls at the seventh World Netball Championship in Scotland and played for the national women’s basketball team during the 1997 Pacific Mini Games in American Samoa.
She retired from national netball duties in 2003 but still makes appearances for netball at club level every now and then for weekly competition in the masters category.
Her dedication to netball besides her impact on the court is a deeply-rooted one; she served two terms as president of the Suva Netball Association and is currently the president of the Lomaiviti Netball Club.
She is now the general manager for institutional banking at BRED Bank Fiji.
Times: How did you feel when you found out you were appointed to the role?
Vugakoto: We really thank God for his timing and his plans in all the turbulence that Netball Fiji has been facing throughout the years. I would like to thank the 18 associations that worked together tirelessly just to get their voice heard, something that has not been heard for the past few years.
They made a big decision by walking out just to show where they stand and what they believe in. I’m thankful they had the confidence in me to lead the way, make the change, hear their voices, implement what they have been crying for and asking for change for the many years that have passed.
It’s an honour to take up that role; I felt a bit emotional when we had made the decision on Saturday (March 7) when the transition committee met for the first time.
With all the experiences I’ve had in representing the country, being president of the largest (netball) club in Fiji and developing players from the grassroots, I feel I have a lot to offer in the sport that I love.
It’s a family sport and also in my current position at BRED Bank (Fiji) as an executive member, I can bring in a lot of the experience as an executive in the banking industry.
Times: In a statement released by Netball Fiji released last night (Monday night), it stated you expressed your appreciation to the outgoing president Mrs (RubyAnn) Sorovaki for her leadership. If possible, could you expand a little bit on that?
Vugakoto: Ruby (RubyAnn Sorovaki) and I, we’ve come a long way, played together, we’ve worked at BSP (Bank of the South Pacific) so she has a lot that she had offered. She’s also taken netball to the level where it is today, and after we did a transition meeting for her to hand over what Netball (Fiji) has done so far, I’m very happy that she was sitting in that role.
It was the toughest time for her, she faced a lot of challenges but she held onto it and wanted to make sure that it does not get worse as someone would expect, but I know that she’s felt (it was) the time to handover.
We’ve always come to a stage in our lives or in our leadership where it’s the end for me and I need to handover; it happens everywhere.
So I think she felt it was time for her this year after all the pressure from last year, and I’m so thankful that she did the only thing; to accept the wishes of all the 18 presidents and was willing to stay on with the transition committee to help us through in this transition.;
I really do appreciate all that she has done so far and happy (for her) to continue with the transition committee and I really thank her for that.
Times: And on the transition period, it (the statement) says that it is going to be guided by three priorities that reflect the intent of the new constitution which was passed late last month. Please expand on those three priorities that have already been mentioned in the statement.
Vugakoto: Yes, for me, it was the three that were in the constitution but I felt like the three would be governance, just the governance side of the institute which is more (of) the strategic, the funding, the pathways, communication and also lift up the confidence of our members to be able to wish to represent the country.
So, it’s more on the performance, the governance leads to performance and so that is probably our top priority; the governance and the performance of our (Fiji) Pearls in the world rankings, in the Pacific and locally so those are pretty much the two priorities for us.
Times: Speaking of the Pearls, they are missing out on the Commonwealth Games this year. With the transition committee helping make way for a new committee (management) coming next year, could it help restore the team’s formidability on the world stage?
Vugakoto: Yes. I feel one message that has come out clearly after all this, is that people would say they see the change and I mean, with respect to Ruby (RubyAnn Sorovaki) and the leadership (team), one thing that we’ve seen is when the performance declines, the first thing people see is the governance and leadership.
Not that I’m saying the quality of the leadership, but maybe people are beginning to lose trust or are dissatisfied, and that also leads to people and players being distracted.
We’re losing confidence in sponsors, so funding will be a challenge. Our public image on netball and Fiji as a whole. All this could deter our performance in our ranking.
So with this transition team, that’s why it’s a priority. First, is to look after the welfare of our players; get the confidence back in the girls out there that have lost interest to represent the country and there are a lot of good players out there so that is our priority.
We’re looking forward to the (new) national coach (Michelle Parsons) who will probably come in next month and we’ll work with her and also maybe review our squad members so we can have a bit of depth and strength because our priority is the qualification which is in September (Netball World Cup 2027 Regional Qualifier (Oceania)) so we are really running against time and that is our first target, to qualify and once that’s done and then we can start looking at the step, (which) is improving our ranking.
We did not qualify for the Commonwealth Games but for this transition committee, our priority is to qualify so the first thing is the welfare of the players and give the players confidence to trust Netball Fiji again and those players can come back when they are called because at the moment, I feel that those in the squad list, maybe 50 per cent of them do not turn up and that represents a big volume.
Either they have lost interest, or they do not trust the system or they are not satisfied so that’s our priority in line with the governance because those two have to work together.
Times: With the new arrangement for Netball Fiji now, it’s now divided into zones and it seems that with this new arrangement, some of those member associations that are in the isolated or rural areas are now being given a platform to come forward with a louder voice. Just your thoughts on seeing those associations come forward and having a more centred voice with the way things progress from next year?
Vugakoto: That is good, that’s our third strategy and our third action item – the zoning. We will have the western zone so they will have a representative who they will talk through, raise opinions and their views through. They will vote for a representative in the western zone, and also in the eastern, central and northern zone. They will have a representative of those three zones and their voice will be heard at the board meeting.
They will have their own agents, embrace their opinions in the three zones at their respective places. The three will meet, and then they reprioritise and then they go into the board (meeting).
We group them up in zones so that the ones that are not heard will be represented in the respective zones. So that is why we thought of zoning it up so that there could be a lot more representation.
Times: With the transition committee coming in, what are some of the things you’re looking forward to personally see achieved in this period of time, besides the three priorities already highlighted?
Vugakoto: For me, it’s just to see Fiji netball go back to where it used to be. Membership-wise, we’ve got the number, we still have the interest but the ranking. I really want to see personally, I really want to see Netball Fiji back to the top 10 and top eight because we were once sixth and we can do it.
But I think we’ve got to clean up a bit of our backyard, the governance side of things and all this will start to fall into place.
The office needs to be aligned with the strategy, they’ve got to come on board with this transition committee. We all have to work together as a team. But my ultimate objective is to (get Fiji) back to where we used to be in the top 10, “Queen of the Pacific”, qualify for the Commonwealth (Games) and automatically qualify for the (Netball) World Cup.
We do not need to be playing in the qualifiers.
Maliana Rusivakula of Fiji in action during the Netball World Cup 2023, Pool F match between Fiji and Scotland at Cape Town International Convention Centre Court 2 on August 03, 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: SHAUN ROYN/GALLO IMAGES/NETBALL WORLD CUP 2023
