Hard-working Saints manager aims high
At just 32, Fran Scholey has beaten lung cancer, managed the national basketball champions, and plans to climb even higher.
Now in her fourth season as general manager at the Saints, they have won two titles and a runner-up placing with Scholey at the helm as they march towards the finals in Tauranga, having gone undefeated this season.
Scholey is a rare example of a woman in charge of an elite men’s sports team, but her role with the Saints is just one of the hats she wears.
She juggles her position at the Saints with a separate NBL administration role, being a single mum, part-time student and netball coach.
Scholey lost one of her lungs to cancer in December.
After having problems with her breathing, doctors detected a nodule on her lung while she was on tour with the Saints in Taiwan last year.
On returning to New Zealand, it was decided an operation was needed to remove half her left lung.
During the operation, surgeons found the nodule was a slowgrowing tumour caused by a rare form of cancer and decided to take out the entire lung.
‘‘The first I knew about [the whole lung being taken out] was after waking up from surgery.’’
She said doing so many things ‘‘has its challenges’’ but shrugs off any suggestion that she might be doing too much.
‘‘You can get on the pity train or you can say: ‘I can still do things and I can relearn things’.’’
Although she might take things slower than she used to, Scholey has learnt to be patient and her effectiveness as a manager has not waned, having won Administrator of the Year at the recent Hutt Valley Sports Awards for her management of the Saints and netball coaching.
‘‘I really wasn’t expecting it. I was really humbled to be able to walk up there and receive the award.’’
Saints chief executive Nick Mills said her award was ‘‘thoroughly deserved’’.
He said her effectiveness came down not just to her administrative and sales skills, but her experience as a top-level athlete.
Her experience as a New Zealand indoor netball representative gave her an understanding of the environment in which sportspeople operate.
‘‘She’s an athlete and understands how sportspeople work,’’ Mills said.
The unexpected loss of her lung meant she also had to put her own sporting ambitions aside.
‘‘That is what ended my playing days. It was real hard to accept because I love netball,’’ Scholey said.
Despite not being able to play, she remains involved as coach of Maidstone United, the current Hutt Valley netball champions.
Her knowledge is still being used to foster the next generation of top-level netballers as well as to encourage youngsters, through holding the odd skills session with her seven-year-old daughter’s team.
She is working on a business degree, majoring in management, which she hopes will add to her credentials on an already impressive resume.
Her long-term ambition is to become a chief executive for a sports organisation.
‘‘I can easily see her becoming a CEO somewhere. She’s been fantastic,’’ Mills said.