Reporter tells relationship, rise of Ottio

By JACK AMI
I AM one of the few people in the media who can claim to have followed Kato Ottio’s rise from volleyball representative to professional rugby league player.
Being a reporter who had covered basketball, volleyball and rugby league as well as several other sports since the 1980s I also considered Kato a great talent and developed a good working relationship with the young man from Tatana village.
I received the news of his death via a text from Port Moresby Rugby Football League chairman Dr James Naipao on Tuesday morning.
The shock hit me hard as I imagined it had for many rugby league fans around the country as well as those who knew Kato well.
Kato made waves playing in the Southern Nines for Maopa Paio alongside the Abavu brothers Josiah, a Kumul, and his siblings Anthony and Bland.
Ottio was introduced to Maopa Paio club boss Wari Varage who immediately saw the potential in the young volleyballer.
Varage recruited Ottio for his PRL club Dobo Warriors which was a club that had roots in Koiari, Central.
I was advised by Varage to keep an eye on the 192cm tall ex-volleyballer who was trying his hand at rugby league after representing PNG at the 2013 Pacific Mini Games as a 17-year-old.
I focused on Kato and Bland Abavu from their 2014 form onwards and once they made the SP Hunters training squad for the 2015 season, they were the only players along with Adam Korave — a foundation Hunter — who were from the Southern region.
Both players were like sons to me because we were Papuans and I would shoot pictures of them in Hunters matches at Kokopo.
I followed Ottio’s development from the Southern Zone to the Prime Ministers XIII then on to the Hunters and finally the Kumuls.
You have to remember he made the Hunters and the Kumuls without having played a single Digicel Cup game – such was his talent and potential.
I considered it an honour to have watched the development and growth of a player who, in my view, had the potential to be one of the true Kumul greats alongside the likes of our homegrown Marcus Bai. After only a year with the Hunters in the Q-Cup, it looked like Kato was on the fast track to emulating Bai after he was signed on by NRL club the Canberra Raiders.
Although he started out playing for the Raiders’ feeder club the Mounties in NSW Cup, his debut season was nothing short of spectacular with Kato scoring 29 tries in 23 games.
Unfortunately, Kato hit a speed hump in the penultimate match of the regular season when he seriously injured a knee exiling him to six months on the sidelines.
My last interview and pictures of Kato was during the lead-up to the World Cup PNG Kumuls announcement and training at the Gateway Hotel.
Kato jokingly told me “vava” (uncle) in Motu dialect, “oi diba torea sibona oi emu diba dekenai (write the story in your own way).
Although I did not get the chance to watch him live at the World Cup I followed his progress with great interest.
I regret not having had the chance to talk to him at length during the World Cup but I, as well as many fans, could tell he was a quiet but important cog in coach Michael Marum’s Kumuls machine.
From my time as a sports reporter I can say I have not seen a more talented, athletically gifted and dedicated player.
Kato was someone who was a great role model to his family, relatives, the people of Tatana and the country.
I will remember Kato as a level-headed, quietly-spoken young man who was headed for great things.