Daring to dream: Shepparton Park’s Mia Nowosad speaks on the trials and tribulations towards a Tongan bowls berth

It’s a journey which technically began more than 60 years ago, when Nowosad first left her birth nation of Tonga as a child.

For more than half of that time, the furthest thing from what she could have imagined would be pulling on a Tonga top and representing her nation as a bowler.

Frankly, it appeared all but impossible until an enormous wave of form either side of the pandemic thrust Nowosad’s name among the ones to watch in the various regions she occupied.

Before any of that, though, her experience on the greens began in the late 1990s.

“I was at Stanhope to start off when my late husband was already playing there,” Nowosad said.

“We were tennis players, but as we grew older he told me to come down and play; I told him, ‘I’m too young to play bowls’.

“I asked what the philosophy of the game was and he just told me, ‘Get the big one next to the small one’ and I thought, ‘That’s all?’

“I got into it from there and started out in division four, but things changed in the family.”

A tear welling in her eye, Nowosad recounted the death of her son in 1998 followed by her husband in 2001, resulting in her work commitments reducing and, of course, bowls not figuring as prominently.

She nonetheless found herself in some high places, though, spending time at Essendon — a club more prominently established than most in the metropolitan bowls scene.

Her interest never wavered, even if she still had yet to conceptualise what would become her ultimate goal by the time the pandemic rolled around and threw yet more spanners in the works.

“I came back (to the region) because COVID hit,” Nowosad said.

“I went to Geelong afterwards while traveling with my husband, and that’s where my game really improved in winning div one; my biggest achievement is probably going from that to being state runners-up at Moama.”

All of a sudden, we had a prize fighter on our hands in a post-lockdown bowls scene.

As a club bowler, one who had toiled away for multiple decades with varying levels of commitment, some previously untapped potential was being well and truly realised.

It was at this stage, however, that Nowosad discovered she had further to go — and the extent of her true ambitions was finally clear after about 25 years in the game.

Extending far beyond regular pennants, her eyes were open to potentially representing her native Tonga on an international stage — but only through the circumstances of the pandemic did that become apparent.

“I watched the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and I thought, ‘I bowl like them’, Nowosad said.

“I looked at who was representing Tonga, but they weren’t there. That’s when the dream really started.

“I said that I’m a handy bowler and I can actually try and represent them in the Games because there’s nobody there right now, so I wrote back home a letter and resume with my achievements so they know there’s someone interested in representing them.

“Their club is in Auckland, but you have to hold their passport to be able to play.”

Nowosad’s sights were at last set on the truest ambition.

However, there was one significant obstacle still sitting in her way.

She had no citizenship to that nation; so, she obviously did not possess a Tongan passport.

With eyes on the 2026 Games, set to be held in regional Victoria at the time, Nowosad went about putting in for her paperwork.

Then, of course, came the news that Victoria would no longer host, plunging the future of the Games into uncertainty.

“I was extremely concerned when they first cancelled,” Nowosad said.

“I was full of hope, but when that was dashed, it didn’t dampen me. I rebuilt because I knew there would be some Games somewhere.

“I didn’t think it would be killed and then the head of the Tongan federation confirmed that they’re going to send a team to Glasgow.”

No harm, no foul, right? The Games are back on.

There’s a long time and a lot of work ahead — and she’s been getting by with a little help from some friends at Park in the meantime.

“I’m so thankful to Paul Nichols as he has helped me fine-tune my game to make it steady and consistent,” Nowosad said.

“I’ve been working with him fro two or three months; a lot of things were out of my control and the only thing in my control was just to practice.

“I get up at six doing my home gym for an hour, and I make sure I’m here under this dome at least five days a week just to practice.”

Up next is the breakthrough chance that hands Nowosad her dream international call-up — the Oceania Challenge in Auckland.

The chance only came about through an extraordinary circumstance which arose out of her last-minute dash to obtain Tongan citizenship last month in Canberra.

Fortuitous doesn’t begin to describe her run-in with destiny.

“I went to put in my passport application the moment my citizenship ceremony was over, because I needed both to get on the plane,” Nowosad said.

“The Tongan High Commissioner said he wanted me to take my passport home with me that day and, after lunch, he came out with it and said ‘Good luck, we’ll be following you’.

“I never thought that this would be on my path, but I’m grabbing it with both hands and I’m going to play my very best.

“I’ve been away from Tonga for over 60 years, but to represent my birth nation — I sometimes pinch myself.

“I believe in miracles and that God is on my side.”

Nowosad is set to line up second in the Tongan ladies’ triples side and second in the ladies’ fours.

The Oceanic Challenge runs for five days in Auckland from November 20-24.

“To have a chance to be considered for the Commonwealth team, I want to go there and put in 110 per cent and, hopefully, they count that in for my ultimate goal,” Nowosad said.

“We’re all paying for our own expenses, but I just feel so blessed that I’m representing them.

“It’s a game I want to play well, not only for Tonga, but for this club, because I’m representing Park as well.”