Samoan-born Tivaini Fomai ended his 2016 year with a constellation of outstanding achievements.

Tivaini completed his Bachelor of Recreation and Sport at EIT, secured a full-time job at Hastings Boys’ High School and was recently appointed to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s Pasifika Health Leadership group.

The group’s role is to advise the board on strategic matters from a Pasifika perspective and Tivaini’s goal is to work with older people.

The 31-year-old from Flaxmere has packed a great deal into the past few years, helping wife Moira care for their twin daughers Kiera-Alex and Teiyah-Heidin and son Fomai-Tivaini Palemia – while studying, working full-time as a residential supervisor at Hohepa  Homes and training for rugby. 

EIT’s head of school for health and sport science Kirsten Westwood says it’s great to see such good EIT Bachelor of Recreation and Sport role models doing well in our community.  For his part, Tivaina says he’s grateful to the lecturers who teach the sport and recreation programme.

“They have been awesome, strongly supporting their students no matter what situation or circumstances they are in.”

A Hastings Boys’ High School old boy and former Magpie, Tiviani played three games for Samoa on the squad’s 2012 northern hemisphere tour.  His club team was Hastings Rugby and Sport.

This year he helped establish the Hawke’s Bay Samoa rugby team with current players Setu Ape Kereti and Nathan Pulega.  In 2017, he will be the premier forwards coach for Hastings Rugby and Sports.

The accomplished sportsman was awarded a 2015 Sports Hawke’s Bay and EIT sports scholarship, which provided $2000 to use towards sports performance or study.  In 2016, he received the Otatara Trust scholarship, also for $2000.

Donating a kidney to his mother, Epenesa, has meant Tivaini having to give up playing the game altogether.

While he found that bitter-sweet, he’s excited by his next challenge – giving back to the community as a teacher. He will work full-time at Hastings Boys’ as a Pacific liaison and rugby academy coach and hopes to dovetail that with part-time study for a graduate diploma in teaching. 

“Helping the younger ones in rugby particularly is one of my passions,” he points out, “and for me it is very rewarding.”

Tivaini says these last years have been a challenging journey – “but in the end my family got through and were able to get the results we needed”.