MILLER PATA
National Coach
Miller Pata is our National Coach.
Pata is a beach volleyball legend, not only in her home nation of Vanuatu, but across the Oceania region and lauded for her 17-year playing career across the sportâs national and international landscape.
Beginning her playing career in 2006 on her home island of Mota Lava in the Banks Islands group in northern Torba Province, her national representative career kicked off a year later competing in the Oceania Championships in Samoa, finishing 2ndâŠ. And never looked back, competing in international events over the next 16 years, with her highlights being Oceania Championship success, Pacific Games gold medals and the highlight being the TWO Commonwealth Games medals, winning back-to-back bronze in 2018 and 2022.
While achieving all this, Pata also took time to have 3 children, very conscious of the responsibilities and expectations of a ni-Vanuatu woman in her community with regards to family, and yet juggling that with her determination to champion resilience and the place of women in sport in her country and their ability to strive to achieve their goals.
She was named the Worldâs Most Inspirational Player on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 2015, in Pacific Team of the Year in 2013 and 2014, as a UNICEF Pacific Ambassador from 2015-2017 and as part of the 2019 Vanuatu Team of the Year award.
For Pata to become the next national coach at the end of her on-court career seemed like a natural fit, having nurtured many youth girls over recent years as part of VVFs youth development program.
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MANU MAKI
Trainer & Assistant coach
Manu Maki is a VVF trainer & Assistant National coach.
Manu is from Paama Island in Malampa Province, now living in Port Vila, and started playing volleyball in 2014.
He was initially selected for the national men’s team as a player, becoming more involved with VVF in 2015, and quickly realised he wanted to find something more to do in and around volleyball.
He was gradually drawn to coaching and began by getting involved in the âAfter School Programâ, training the young pikinini, and continues to do so, through the youth development program. Â Manu likes training the kids, teaching them skills and the game, but also enjoys watching them laugh and run around. He started by coaching the Under 12 age group and has slowly progressed over the last few years to working with and training the Under 16 group, and now also assists Miller Pata with the senior womenâs program as the Assistant National coach.
Manu feels great pride in what he has achieved and learnt along the way, sharing his knowledge and the experiences gained. He has also attended different capacity building courses which have enabled him to take on and develop his role and be an integral part of the VVF team.
Strength and Conditioning has also become an area of interest for Manu and he has taken the opportunity over the past two years to work with VVFs national S&C coach from the UK, Rob Francis, in delivering the program to the national women’s team.
He loves his work with the Vanuatu Volleyball Federation, enjoying the coaching aspect, where he is able to help teach both children and adults, having fun, building confidence, and developing skills in leadership and communication.
âCommunication is key, if you give it the right way people will followâ – Manu
MYLES BURFIELD
Physiotherapist
Myles Burfield is our physiotherapist.
ROBERT FRANCIS
Performance Team Lead
Robert Franicis is our Performance Team Leader.
Rob is a performance practitioner in the field of Sports Science from the UK, and came to Vanuatu in 2023 as part of his role with the International Olympic Committeeâs Solidarity and Development program.
Rob spent more than a month attached to the Vanuatu national beach volleyball squad, with the aim of observing, analysing, reviewing and attempting to optimise the squadâs high-level performance around fitness and physical wellbeing practices. The overall goal was, and continues to be, to enhance the volleyball programâs development, sustainability and performance into the future, with a busy decade ahead.
His focus has been not only on the national players, but on creating and consolidating a performance-based development pathway from the entry-level, where local youth try to emulate their role models, through to senior representative level, with sustainability over the long-term, being the key element, covering everything from nutrition, warming-up exercise routines and skills development levels.
Since joining with VVF, Rob’s objective has been to give the players, coaches and even VVF support staff, the tools they need to implement the changes and continue to develop and progress, once he returned to his home base in the UK, supporting them remotely.
As part of his IOC contract, Rob returns intermittently to Vanuatu to further enhance the pathway program, building upon these initial foundations.
DEBBIE MASAUVAKALO
VVF President
Debbie started her pathway with Vanuatu Beach Volleyball over 17 years ago, with her journey to Vanuatu beginning as a young Australian volunteer. Having played representative beach volleyball for the Northern Territory, she saw a strength but also a gap in Vanuatu for the sport â especially for the participation of women.
Her story begins there.
Settling permanently in Vanuatu in the late 2000s, Debbie quickly took on the role of President of VVF, and has become a recognised member of the community, working hard to promote not only the sport of volleyball, but the participation of women in the sport at all levels.
She has received local and international recognition from various organisations, the FIVB, the IOC and World Paravolley among them, on both an individual basis and in her executive role with VVF.
Volleyball has always been a popular sport in Vanuatu, but over the past 16 years, it has developed significantly and can now be found in communities throughout the island nation, being played in villages and schools as well as being one of the main sports in which Vanuatu is represented on the international sporting stage.
The National Womenâs Beach Volleyball squad – Oceania Champions, Pacific Games champions, Commonwealth Games Bronze medalists and consistent contenders for Olympic Games qualification – develops and nurtures talent, and continues to grow and achieve success under Debbie’s strong commitment and dedication.
