NHL role in Global Sports Mentoring Program paying dividends

NEW YORK -- A gathering of NHL employees, delegates from the United States Department of State Global Sports Mentoring Program and other organizations including the NFL and ESPN seated in the largest conference room in the League's Manhattan office, along with 15 others listening and watching over Zoom, was the ideal setting for Lailanie Burnes to be vulnerable.

Burnes is a sponsorship and hospitality manager for the Fijian Drua rugby union team based in Nadi, Fiji, and competing in the Super Rugby professional league. She's been in New York since Oct. 26 as the delegate of the NHL, an annual host organization for a collaboration between the U.S. Department of State Global Sports Mentoring Program, administered in partnership with espnW and the Center for Sport, Peace and Society at the University of Tennessee.

The journey takes her around the League through Nov. 14 during an immersive, five-week mentorship that helps empower women and girls through sports.

Ten days in, Burnes presented her action plan, the four pillars of what she called Sports for Success: identity, education, mental health and physical health. She captivated a receptive audience and left one person wishing she could command a room with the same power and grace.

Well into the delivery was a slide labeled "My Why," a photo of Burnes as a little girl, along with her aunt, Pat, and uncle, Dan, as youngsters around the same age. Pat died from a non-communicable disease before the age of 30; Dan died by suicide before his 25th birthday.

Burnes' voice cracked during this part of her presentation. One delegate later described that portion as a gut punch to the room. Collectively, it was a complete understanding of her why.

"The opportunities and the benefits that I personally saw through sport was a life-changing opportunity for me," Burnes said. "I was able to go and experience things, only dreams girls and women can dream about in my country."

Three hours earlier, Burnes shared her learning journey with NHL.com. She relocated to Nadi from Australia. Her mother, Nanise, is a native of Nairai in the Lomaiviti Islands that are part of Fiji. She fell in love with rugby as a child watching the game and hearing stories of her father, Colin, playing in Sydney. She founded Fiji's first women's rugby team in the western division (Nadi) in 2012, and was captain of the national team that qualified for Rugby World Cup 2021. Fiji went 1-2 in Pool C in its tournament debut, and Burnes was named Nadi Rugby Union women's coach for the 2023 season on Dec. 7, 2022.

She grew up in Nadi's western region, without a traffic light until 2008. If you thought her first visit to New York would be a culture shock, you don't know how she's wired.

"When people say it's the city that doesn't sleep, they're not kidding," Burnes said. "This hustle and this bustle, it's amazing. I've been trying to really immerse myself in all aspects of the experience, history, culture, being able to go out and see and do as much as I can, as well as from the organization perspective and the different, amazing people that I'm meeting and learning from in the journey with the NHL. And the different people that I've been having meetings with outside of the NHL."

The first 10 days taught Burnes many differences in partnerships between Fiji and the United States, one a greater emphasis on data collection. Her remaining schedule included meetings with the League's commercial, legal and business affairs departments, the NBA and the NFL. She'll "hit the ground running" once home, implementing ambitious changes to the general attitude toward women wanting to play or work in sports.

Burnes already proved women can succeed in rugby's male-dominated space. Fiji is a patriarchal society, but more women are learning to see the sport as a healthy outlet and ignoring what she says have been calls for them to get back in the kitchen, or being threatened unless they leave the pitch. Her response is a three-year plan demanding change, beginning by working closely with different organizations in the United States to set up strategic partnerships providing resources and something new to Fiji.

"I'm going to be introducing the first-ever women's specific program for women in sport," Burnes said. "And it will be the first one in the Pacific, by Pacific women, because I feel that as a Pacific woman and a Fijian woman, I understand firsthand the challenges that we have.

"I want to be able to use sport to address some of these main issues, violence against women, minimizing youth suicides in my country, but also to open the opportunity for women and girls to be able to play sport. I want to be able to implement our first-ever Women in Sports Summit, similar to what we learned at the [espnW: Women + Sports Summit, held Oct. 23-25]. Then expand it and go and share what we've done in Fiji with the rest of the Pacific."

She'll return following another visit to Washington, D.C., where she and other delegates first gathered, better equipped to empower women -- and men, hopefully someday as a men's rugby coach. Inside that conference room, the mentee became the mentor. Back home she's a trailblazer, and that's just the beginning.

"It's an honor." Burnes said. "But the reality of the situation is there's been many wonderful women that have gone before me and paved the path to be able to help me to get where I am today. It comes with a big responsibility that you help others, to be able to help them not have to go through the same challenges, to make life easier for the next generation, hopefully empower them to be better than you were ever."