Rakavii, meaning ‘rugby’ in Fijian, is a new and rapidly growing athletic training organization that has its sights set on far more than just developing rugby players and programs.
Started in 2018 by co-founders Tui and Jessie Osborne, Rakavii is ‘Accelerating athletic performance through behavioral change, community, and collaboration,’ emphasizing its four fundamental pillars that support an organization: Skills, Structure, Community, and Culture. With these core beliefs in mind, Rakavii’s goal is to ‘positively develop those four pillars to make your athletic organization successful.’
“We [Tui and Jessie] have two very different skill sets that we’re both good at,” said Tui, who serves as the Director of Performance. “After a few years of putting together ideas, concepts, and vision, we decided to take the jump to bring this to life. It’s just the beginning so there is definitely more to come.”
Already Rakavii is at work training area high school athletes this summer. Recently, Tui and his team of high level collegiate athletes ran a successful two-day rugby camp for Canisius High School. Next, July 15th – July 18th, Rakavii is running a middle school and high school boys and girl camp in Kenmore at Crosby Field.
“We had a successful camp teaming up with the athletic department at Canisius High School,” said Tui. “It was a good number for the first year of the camp which also allowed more individual coaching and feedback for the attendees. We are looking forward to an even bigger camp at Kenmore.”
Even though Rakavii is a relatively new organization, both Tui and Jessie are masters within their professional fields.
Tui was born and raised in Fiji and is a lifelong player, coach, and enthusiast of the sport of rugby. Tui has played both sevens and fifteen man rugby for many years, for dozens of clubs, and he was even selected to the United States World Cup team and has experience within the US Olympic rugby organization. Tui made it his life’s work to coach rugby and develop athletes not only physically, but psychologically and emotionally as well.
Tui formerly coached Life University’s powerhouse program to collegiate national titles in both men’s sevens and fifteen man rugby and currently coaches the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, one of the top programs in the northeastern United States and a fast growing powerhouse of its own.
Jessie holds a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in Organizational Leadership from Brenau University and serves as the Director of Organizational Leadership for Rakavii. After experiencing, learning, and understanding the organizational principles that drive corporate America for over a decade, Jessie combined her knowledge and expertise with that of Tui’s to form a new, modern way of adapting those principles to athletic organization and thus Rakavii was formed.
With a vision in mind, Tui and Jessie identified and introduced their four pillars – Skills, Community, Culture, and Structure – that are fundamental to organizational strength and ultimately success, not just in the corporate world but in athletic programs as well.
With an emphasis on the intangible qualities that make all great programs great, Rakavii’s goal is to ultimately not only be the leader in organizational training for rugby, but for athletes of all kinds as well.
“We are starting with rugby,” said Tui, “…but the goal is to spread to other sports and organizations.”
For more information on the upcoming Kenmore camp and how to sign up please visit the link here: https://rakavii.com/events/