The fierce defender leading Fijian netball's next generation

Anasimeci Rakavosa was just a teenager when she started playing netball, and only just in her twenties when she was asked to join the national team, the Fiji Pearls. A young mother at the time, she spent long hours travelling between home, work and training, most often by bus while lugging a hefty suitcase full of clothes, towels and sports gear.

“Juggling being a mother and a player, you come to train at the tracks at 5am, then you have your shower and go to work, and then you go from work back to training again, and then back home around 9pm,” she recalls.

She was hard-working, she was passionate, and she was – make no mistake – tough, both on and off the field.

“I was a very aggressive defender, a goalkeeper. My team-mates knew me as a rough player. Umpires knew me as a very naughty player. Yeah, that's me,” she says with a hearty laugh.

Over the next nine years, Anasimeci represented her country in two Commonwealth Games and a Netball World Championship, with the team placing in the top ten across all events.

“I love the game. I really love the sport.”

New beginnings

Once her playing days had come to an end, Anasimeci turned her focus to work and family, caring for her ageing mother and slowly building a career at Telecom Fiji. But after her mother passed away, she felt compelled to take stock.

“My heart was not satisfied,” she realised. “There was still something missing.”

Aged in her forties, Anasimeci made the courageous decision to return to the sport she loved. She enrolled in Sports Science at Fiji National University, earned a diploma, and will finish her degree in Sports Education and Exercise Science this year. She also began coaching her old team, the Lomaiviti Netball Club in Suva.

“I love the coaching part of netball, motivating the girls and encouraging them, putting some [of the] fire of netball into them,” she says.

Helping those that help themselves

Over the past few years, Anasimeci has made a huge contribution to netball in Fiji, organising netball clinics nationwide and serving as both Netball Academy Coach and Coach Developer for Netball Fiji.

Along the way, she has taken part in a range of professional development activities. In 2022, she attended a coaching and officiating workshop run by the Australian Defence Force with support from Netball Australia. In 2023, she was part of a regional coach development program, hosted by Netball Fiji with support from Netball Australia and the Australian Government through PacificAus Sports. Later that same year, she had the opportunity to coach one of the two Pearls squads in a friendly series supported by PacificAus Sports, played against South Coast Blaze and Sunshine Coast Thunder from Australia.

But it was 2023’s Global Coach Conference (GCC) in Singapore, attended with the backing of Netball Fiji and Netball Australia, that Anasimeci found truly “mind-blowing”.

“I was really excited about the opportunity that was given to me to listen to sports scientists from around the world,” she says. “When I came back from Singapore, I really wanted to bring back what I learned.”

One of the insights that stood out for Anasimeci was the importance of collaboration and connection, not just between coaches but between sporting codes. On her return, she reached out to Fiji Rugby and the Fiji National Sports Commission and soon found herself embracing the challenge of travelling to Fiji’s outer islands to run development activities there. She also started applying for new positions, and in 2024, was rewarded with two significant new netball roles: Sport Development Coordinator across the whole of Fiji, and Assistant Coach of the Under-21 Baby Pearls.

To the World Cup - and beyond

Today’s young netballers have the benefit of much more diverse and sophisticated training programs than was the case for Anasimeci and her teammates, says the legendary defender, but they’re yet to develop the confidence and grit they need to be champions.

“During my time, I think we were stronger…When we used to play, we were hardcore,” she says with a smile. “[I have tried to] instil in the Baby Pearls our cultural background, how we were back then. We were warriors before – and we should bring that to the sport.”

The recent Rising Stars: Fiji 21/U Tour, held in August with support from PacificAus Sports, gave the Baby Pearls a chance to compete against international teams from Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. According to Anasimeci, it was a valuable learning experience.

“When the girls met the Australia and New Zealand team, I think they had the shock of their lives,” she laughs. “And that was a good thing for them because now they know – this is what it looks like: the height, the build, the speed of the game. It prepares them mentally, physically, spiritually for the Netball World Youth Cup in 2025.”

Next year’s tournament is the first step in a period of consolidation and growth that Anasimeci hopes will see Fiji firmly fixed in the top six of international netball rankings in the near future.

“I know we can do it,” she says. “We need to support these girls, to show them that Fiji got to that stage at one time and that we can do it again – with the right coaching team and everybody just working together.”