Netball players have had to bake cakes, sell their produce and did fundraising to participate in the Punjas Digicel Netball Interdistrict Championship now underway at the Netball Centre in Suva.

Koro head coach Maopa Marayawa shared this after her team qualified for the quarterfinals of the Under-18 grade yesterday.

Based at Nasau Koro Island, the debutants arrived on Tuesday to be part of the three-day championship.

Marayawa told SUNsports that coming to Suva meant a lot of sacrifice and fundraising.

“Our preparation was not easy back on the island, we had to juggle training and fundraising,” she said.

“The girls were very emotional when we made it to the quarterfinals, after that final whistle they broke down in tears thinking about their sacrifice and hard work.”

“We had one month to prepare for this tournament, during that period the girls did every type of fundrasing in the book for their boat fare and every other expenses.

“Another challenge was family support, we really had to do most of the things without parental support.

“These girls are from different villages in Koro and we train at Tuatua Primary School every day.

“To tackle the financial challengers, they had to bake and sell cakes, pies and other pastry food at the government station in Koro every day.

“Imagine juggling training and then returning home to bake or look for produce to sell to raise money.

“When we docked in on Tuesday, I had to comfort these girls because they were emotional.

“Most of them didn’t believe that they would make it to Suva for this tournament. We are camping at John Wesley and we thank the people of Koro for visiting us giving us morale support and providing us our meals.”

She added that after a few rounds of competition at Nasau, they selected the U18 for the championship.

“I knew these girls have the capability of making it big in netball, I contacted Netball Fiji if we can play in the IDC,” she said.

“We are thankful they agreed and they even supplied us with our new kits and balls.”

“My goal is to give these girls the much needed exposure and experience.”

“We want to learn as much as we can and grow or develop some future Fijian Pearl players.”

Story By: simione.haravanua@fijisun.com.fj