THE Fiji Basketball U15 Fiji national youth team participated in the Voices of Athletes program run by The Fiji Association of Sports and National Olympics Committee (FASANOC) to prepare the team in their responsibilities as representatives of their country.

“The VOA’s main goal is to go out to various sporting federations, communities and schools to advocate on ‘Be a leader, Play True, Play Safe and Go Green’,” said Fiji U15 team manager William Qounadovu.

“The main purpose of our visit was to get our boys to understand the values of the VOA program as this is the first time they will be representing Fiji in an international tournament,” Qounadovu said.

Qounadovu shared that several members of BF were already part of the program, including president Laisiasa Puamau, coach Seini Samson and himself.

“Basketball Fiji is an affiliated member of FASANOC, so every year the Voices of Athletes recruits few national athletes from each sporting federation,” he said.

“When athletes join the VOA program, they then become accredited as VOA Champions. As champions, their roles are to go back to their national federation and advocate on the values of VOA.”

FIBA competitions manager Amanda Jenkins shared her elation with BF’s initiative of preparing the national U15 team as representatives of the country.

“We are very happy with BF’s initiative of preparing their U15 team in terms of representing their country. It’s the first time we will have this age group competition and it’s a good chance for them to be great ambassadors for Fiji,” said Jenkins.

Source: The Fiji Times Newspaper on Monday 3rd September 2018.