The American Samoa Basketball Association (ASBA) is holding tryouts every Saturday at the Tafuna High School gymnasium for their Under 19 teams, for future off island competition.

“We are having the ASBA Under 19 tryouts for boys and girls island wide. There will be a Youth Championship in Fiji this coming November,” according to Milton Taufa’asau, ASBA president.

 “What we are really prepping for is not just the Youth Championship this year, we also have the 2015 Pacific Games that will be in Papua New Guinea. This is a big year for us to prepare for basketball for the men’s and women’s teams,” he said.

The first day of the tryouts was on Saturday Mar. 15, with the second tryout this past Saturday. Tryouts are only held on Saturdays.

Taufa’asau stated that they had a great turnout on the first day, with last Saturday being just as good.

“There is so much talent here in the territory and we are happy to see a lot of the kids, especially the girls coming out to these tryouts to really show their talent. There are also kids off island contacting us saying that they are very interested in trying for the team and representing American Samoa,” he said.

He stated that for the Youth Championship that they will be taking a maximum of ten players for each team, and they are also holding tryouts for coaches and officials.

Taufa’asau said if there is any coach, official or referee who wants to come out and give it a shot that they will be at the Tafuna High School gymnasium this coming Saturday starting at 12:00 p.m. He also said to contact him as soon as possible at 258-1054 or contact ASBA Secretary/Treasurer Diehl Langkilde at 731-4424.

You can also visit their official Facebook page at: Asba Tutuila for contact or to keep track of their latest happenings.