Lisi Raluve is defying the odds and breaking barriers back at her Village in Mokoisa on the Island of Kadavu. The mother of 6 is the team manager and also assistant coach of the Mokoisa Village Netball team. She also runs her own shop at Vunisea.
For Lisi, Netball has always been a big part of her life. It is her passion, and even thou she’s not playing the code, she has committed herself to assisting her Village team. The 44-year-old emphasised that her passion for Netball has ignited her purpose towards developing and helping all young Netballers in her village.
Like many Woman in sports empowerment stories, there is adversity and Lisi has been dealing with hardship and challenges along her journey. Having 6 children to take care of and running your own business while also managing the village Netball team is a massive task for any woman, and not all can handle it. But Lisi handles this task with a big smile as she knows that there isn’t anyone yet to take the mantle.
“There are others who usually tell me to just focus on my kids and my business, my youngest is one-year-old and people would ask why am I still engaging with our Netball team when I should be looking after my kids. As a mother I would always put my family first, my kids are my priorities but Netball is also my passion,” said Lisi.
“I love Netball and I will always do my best to help our young players in the village to excel in their Netball journey. My children always assist me at the shop, they come in every afternoon so that I can attend to our team training,” said Lisi.
Lisi does not let any financial instability deter their team from participating in any tournament. For her there will always be a way to accommodate their need if they’d look at all avenues.
“I always motivate our young players. For us, it is always a challenge to try to raise funding for our teams’ expenses to attend any tournament, but this does not stop us as the girls would go out fishing and they would bring in their catch to the shop with other farm produce. I would sell all these at the shop in Vunisea and the money would go back to the team,” said Lisi.
They participated at this year’s Punjas Digicel National Championship and went on to play Ra in the Final of the senior (minor and Islands) division. One of their players Lanieta Bota in the National (U18) division went on to claim the National MVP award.This player was the youngest (13yr) playing in the U18 division.
Lisi added that she encourages Lanieta to strive for her best and continue to train hard.
“I always saw potential in her (Lanieta) and I would always encourage her and motivate her to always strive for the best, give all her best, and train hard,” added Lisi.
Last week Lisi concluded her 1-week officials and coaching workshop organised by Australian Defence Force in Partnership with Netball Australia, she was part of 100 participants from 4 sport codes that took part in the ADF Multi-Sport WorkshopsProgram.
“It is such a great opportunity for me to be here and be part of this workshop, I have learned all the fundamentals of the game and I’d like to thank Netball Fiji, Australia Defence Force and Netball Australia for this opportunity.”
Lisi will now take everything she has learnt from the 1 week workshop back to her village to help further develop the Mokoisa Netball team in the years to come.
