American Samoa Community College

	ASCC Students to Compete in Oceania Youth Basketball Championships
	October 12, 2006 James Kneubuhl, ASCC Press Officer


	Two basketball teams comprised mainly of students from the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) will depart this week to New Zealand to compete in the FIBA Oceania Youth Championships. The young men’s and young women’s teams from American Samoa will compete against their basketball-playing counterparts from Australia, Guam, Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti and host country New Zealand in what Championship officials describe as “a week long sporting and cultural experience.”
American Samoa Basketball Association president and ASCC athletics instructor Ed Imo says that the teams began training this past February, following try-outs open to all of American Samoa’s young basketball players. Most of the players who made the final cut come from the College because, as Imo explained, relatively few high school students could commit to the team’s training schedule and travel plans. However, a handful of high school players from Tafuna and Fagaitua proved able to stay the course over the training period, and now fill one slot on the young men’s team and four slots on the young women’s team. According to Imo, teams from American Samoa have participated in the Oceania Championship matches since 1985. The event takes place every two years, with one of the participating countries hosting the Championships on a rotating basis. This year’s competitions in New Zealand will take place at the Trusts Stadium, a 4900 square-meter sports and entertainment facility located in Henderson, Waitakere City, which features six basketball courts, as well as six netball courts, eight volleyball courts, and 12 badminton courts. Although American Samoa cannot yet boast of a similarly impressive site for the competitions, Imo says he still intends to lobby for the Territory to host the next Championships in 2008. The American Samoa Basketball Association, through the Olympic Solidarity Grant, will cover the financing for the American Samoa teams’ visit to New Zealand. ASCC students making the trip include Eugene Brown, Niufolau Pua, Ata Perese, Tilo Luani, Poyer Samuelu, Hansel Maiava, Joe Meleah and Christopher Samia on the young men’s team, and Leaniva Fanene, Tagi Ripley, Skyline Nua, Hope Hisatake and Faith Hisatake on the young women’s team. The Championship games will take places under the auspices of FIBA Oceania, a division of the International Basketball Federation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The acronym “FIBA” derives from the French name “Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur”. In recent years, this international association has dropped the word “amateur” from its name, but with 213 countries now members of the federation, FIBA maintains its role as the world governing body for anything and everything involved in the game of basketball. Fans in American Samoa can keep tabs on their home teams’ performances during the Championships via the FIBA Oceania web site (www.fibaoceania.com). <<< Back to Other News & Events