Pop Warner Ready to Feed Samoa's Football Hunger

Barry Wilner, Associated Press
Friday, February 22, 2008

They practice on dirt fields, sharing shoulder pads, helmets - even mouthpieces.

There's no video of their next opponent. Sometimes, the youngsters show up unannounced at a high school tryout, with little or no background in the sport.

Yet American Samoa, the group of five volcanic islands about 2,600 miles south of Hawaii, has developed a highly disproportionate number of college football players, doing so without a grass-roots program. Soon, however, the U.S. territory of 58,000 will have the kind of building block that exists in even the smallest of American mainland communities.


Pop Warner is coming.

"It's amazing so many of the boys come through playing American football, and yet when you go back there, there's no Pop Warner league or any curriculum that exposes them to the game," says Joe Salave'a, who has played eight NFL seasons as a defensive lineman.

"Because of the kids' love for the game, that is why you see them try so hard to make it," Salave'a adds. "For all they know, that's football, with no proper equipment - they have never been in a program where everything is according to a safety code. You are shocked to see these kids sliding around playing the way they are."

Yet play they do, at least once they reach one of the six high schools (four public, two private) that have teams. While rugby, soccer and volleyball also are popular, football dominates the sporting landscape, even with only one quality field where the high schools stage their games.

"Over the years, American football has become a landmark sport in American Samoa," says Meki Solomona, president of the newly established American Samoa Federation of American Football and a former college player at Cal-Riverside. "I look at the great impact this sport has made in American Samoa."

So much of an impact that in the last five years, nearly 15 percent of the young Samoans playing at home have earned football scholarships to U.S. colleges. Three of the linemen on Hawaii's Sugar Bowl team were from American Samoa.

Just as impressive, four natives of the island were on opening day NFL rosters last season: Domata Peko and Jonathan Fanene of Cincinnati, Paul Soliai of Miami, and Isaac Sopoaga of San Francisco, all defensive linemen.

Plus, players of American Samoan descent in the league include such stars as Seattle All-Pro linebacker Lofa Tatupu, Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu and New England linebacker Junior Seau.

The first Samoan in the NFL was Al Lolotai, who played for the Redskins in 1945. In the last five years, 12 Samoans saw action in regular-season games and two more were in training camps. There were at least a dozen more with Samoan ancestry.

Tatupu, whose father Mosi was a standout fullback at Southern Cal and then played a decade in the NFL, has not yet been to the land of his heritage. But he marvels at how influential Samoans and other Polynesians have become at major colleges and in the pros.

"Every kid that wants to could probably play in the NFL if they put their dreams toward it," Tatupu says. "We love the game and try to respect and honor the game.

"There's a few of us in the league, but we're growing and it's always great to see a brother make it. I don't see why there can't be more; the athletes are starting to get recognition and stuff."

But they need more than recognition and stuff. They need funding for better equipment, organized leagues to serve as a feeder system, improved fields - and more of them.

That's where USA Football, the national governing body for youth and amateur levels, comes in. It is providing financial and educational resources and sending new equipment to American Samoa to help local administrators establish the youth league. USA Football has also aided creation of the American football federation there, which will enable the island to compete in international competitions.

By building from the bottom up, Samoans eventually might have an even larger presence in the sport.

"The Samoans are incredibly passionate about football, so much so that they share helmets and other equipment. They share mouthpieces; imagine that?" says Scott Hallenbeck, USA Football's executive director. "Out of 58,000 people, they have eight players in the NFL, which is incredible.

"This is an amazing group needing only organization and funding, resources and coaching education and actually changing lives."

The hope is that with a feeder system to the high schools, Samoan football will become a true hotbed for college scouts.