KAITAIA (New Zealand) – American Samoa will be aiming to repeat their Pacific Games 2019 success at the FIBA Polynesian Cup 2022.

American Samoa (ASA) Head Coach, Diehl Langkilde said the team have had a disrupted but productive year preparing for the Poly Cup with the aim to qualify for the Pacific Games 2023.

“The team has been training since August following try-outs in February,” Coach Langkilde said.  “Shortly after try-outs COVID shut down our island for close to five months and it has been a challenge to bring the girls back to camp as they had committed elsewhere.  That aside, we have a competitive team assembled which includes five local players who will be linking in with other American Samoans living in New Zealand.

“We have been able to recruit two new players, Musumaulai Galoia from Pava’ia’i and Susanna Lutali from Lliili.  I believe all our player bring something special to the team in terms of dynamics, offence and defence.  Not one player will be solely relied on to carry the load of the team.  We have got an interesting roster and it will be exciting to see them in action.”

Pacific Games 2019 All-Star Fivers, Sarah Toeaina and Malia Nawahine will be returning for ASA following their successes, they will no doubt led the way in Kaitaia.

“Malia and Sarah have been consistent but that is because of the support they receive from rest of the team,” Coach Langkilde said.  “I know a lot of other teams will be just as competitive as us and will have leaders like Malia and Sarah, we will need to be a lot better every game with the entire roster contributing on and off the court.”

Ahead of Poly Cup tip-off, Coach Langkilde said the team are looking forward to competing against the best countries across Polynesia.  “We are looking forward to playing everyone, the biggest scalp will be Cook Islands, of course.  They’re the defending Polynesian Cup champions from 2018 and it’s their home court.  We are coming with the mentality that all teams are competitive, but the Cook Islands are the ones everyone is looking at.”

The top two teams at the Poly Cup will qualify for the 2023 Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands. The Pacific Games then serves as the official qualifier for the Oceania region to the FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers.

FIBA