Peterka aims to set an example

Laurie Peterka, left, is all smiles after receiving the Sports Administrator of the Year award from Jeff Race during the 2018 NMSA Tan Siu Lin Foundation Annual Sports Banquet held last Wednesday at the Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

After receiving another award, Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Association president Laurie Peterka is even more determined to run the federation better in the hopes of encouraging other groups to do the same.

“I have two passions—ocean conservation and community sports,” said Peterka, who got her second Sports Administrator of the Year award last Wednesday night during 2018 NMSA Tan Siu Lin Foundation Annual Sports Banquet at the Hibiscus Hall of the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan.

“I also have a gift for attention to details and I work hard on communications. When I received the award the first time, I didn’t know as much about myself, that I would still be so involved. Now that I’ve been on the NMIVA board since its inception in 2004 and then became the board president sometime around 2007/2008, that’s a long time to see what needs to be done to make the most of our national federation,” Peterka added.

The NMIVA head, who got her first Sports Administrator of the Year plum in 2012, faced a lot of challenges in running the affairs of the federation for about a decade, but managed to withstood them through the help of the members of the volleyball and business communities and other resources, big or small, made available to their group.

“Sports administration is a career in other parts of the world. There are place to check in and learn about how things work for other NFs (national federations) in other places. I kept running into situations where I needed to learn something new to be able to run our NF better. In my professional life, I studied business management, and today, I focus almost entirely on non-profit management. Sports administration and non-profit management have a lot in common. Before, I just wanted to see the NF set up to be the example of how an NF could perform in the community. Now, we continue to find ways to improve and expand our reach, and set examples or provide input as much as possible,” the Northern Marianas Sports Association board member said.

To help other federations, Peterka is leading a group that NMSA tasked to seek grants that would fund facility improvement projects for various sports groups.

As for NMIVA, Peterka said they are focusing on improvising venues games after majority of the facilities were damaged by Super Typhoon Yutu and pushing to send a team in the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.

“The biggest challenge we face right now is two parts. First, no indoor facilities for student activities which means improvising and coming up with things like grass volleyball tournaments, and two is being able to have national teams ready and financially able to participate in Samoa in July,” Peterka said.

“So for the first one, we are being as supportive as possible to PSS (Public School System) and CCOPSA (Commonwealth Coalition of Private Schools Association) by loaning equipment and providing referee services for student games. For the second one, we have to check in with the Legislature and the governor about helping our athletes to attend the Games… travel costs are so far out of reach that it is a real threat to being able to have a strong showing,” the NMIVA official added.

Peterka also said they are looking to boosting their stock of referees and coaches.

“We are still facing capacity issues with coaches, so we are teaming up with Guam to try to get training and certification. Our referee base is good, but we need to add a little more structure to make it sustainable. We don’t have any paid staff to make all of these things happen, so we are challenged to try to organize all of this as volunteers,” she said.