The American Samoa American Football Federation (ASAFF) Men's Football Team made their initial appearance on Tahiti's American style football field last Saturday. Representing American Samoa with pride, were only 11 American Samoa 'Eagles' players — playing both offense and defense — led by head coach Ethan Lake and they gave Tahiti a game to remember as they smacked the Tahitians with a 52 - 10 blowout victory.
Samoa News kept in close contact with the players on the American Samoa team through emails and Facebook, and was updated by Quarterback Daniel Fereti, and Lineman Simon Faiai, who said they will take these memories with them throughout their lifetime — and the driving force within these games, was their representing American Samoa to the fullest.
When asked about his thoughts and expectations leading up to the game against Tahiti, Fai'ai said, “We expected everything that summed up to winning – but winning wasn't our main focus and goal. We're here to develop American Football in Tahiti and to expose the football talent that we have back home in American Samoa.”
He continued, “We did great in today’s game, but we still need to improve – overall, we were excited and so happy with our team’s effort and performance, as well as enjoying a victory together as a team.”
Fereti told Samoa News that before the game started, no one thought of the outcome – but everyone was focused on a positive mindset. He said, “We had to have a positive mindset to take on Tahiti's team with only 11 players – and we did.”
As the leader of American Samoa's team, Fereti reflected on their overall effort and said, “It was an awesome performance, there were very few of us, so it was easy to control everyone. We played our hearts out, we put everything on the line because we knew that we didn't have enough players on our team.”
He said, "We were all shocked, but at the same time it felt great because we only brought 11 players here to Tahiti, and came out unanimously successful – we were short in numbers, all of us played both offense and defense, but overall, it was the best feeling ever to win a game with only 11 players.”
When asked if there’s a team in Oceania that can beat American Samoa in American football Fereti said, “Samoans overall – we're humble! I don't want to say anything that'll start making everyone think we’re big headed. We already know what we're capable of, all we need to do is to continue expanding this program back home, continue to practice and take in more former high school players, and wait for an invitation or challenge from our neighboring countries within our Oceania region.”
He added, "Growing up in this sport, I've learned that anything can happen at anytime in the game, and that there will always be a victor and a loser — sometimes we’ll win some, then sometimes we'll lose some. But for the level of the game in American Samoa compared to other countries in the Pacific, I'll let our record and game winning results do the talking.”
Fereti told Samoa News that after their victory over the Tahitians, they found out that Australia is desperate to play our local boys. "We have a tougher opponent next week, which will be Australia. When they heard that we beat New Zealand and were heading to Tahiti, I guess they desperately tried to work something out to try and play us before we make the trip back home – so we are scheduled to play the Aussies sometime this week.”
Samoa News points out that during past Samoa Bowl football games here on island, Australia's All-Star team returned to the Land Down Under after taking a beating from our local team.
Fereti and Fai'ai concluded with the acknowledgments of those who supported them in this effort, they said, “We would like to give much thanks and alofas to our supporters back home, all of our pastors, reverends, and those within our spiritual faiths for praying and believing in us – a special thank you to all our families and friends back home, and a special shout out to the sponsors who made this trip possible.”