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Four standouts selected for IFAF World Team

Four local high school football standouts have been selected to play on this year’s International Federation of American Football (IFAF) World Team which is scheduled to play in this year’s IFAF International Bowl 2013 against Team United States. They are scheduled to depart the territory for the U.S. tonight.The IFAF International Bowl is a game that sees the top high school football players in the United States take on the best players, age 19 and under, from the rest of the world (including American Samoa) which makes up the World Team. The game will take place on February 5 in Austin, Texas. The four players from the territory who will be on the World Team are, Daniel Fereti (Quarterback/Tafuna), Fred Lauina (OT/Tafuna, Manumalo Baptist), Malo Feula (LB/Tafuna) and Howard Tautu (LB/Faga’itua). Faga’itua’s Head Football coach Suaese “Pooch” Ta’ase will be the World Team’s Linebackers coach. Coach Ta’ase said he would like to thank Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga and his Cabinet for covering the participation fee for the athletes, which includes their expenses while in Austin, Texas. This is hotel, meals, transportation and apparel. He also wanted to give special thanks to everyone who helped out, or who had a hand in helping these four standout players secure a place on the IFAF World Team. In the first annual IFAF International Bowl in 2010, the USA defeated the World Team 17-0 and were repeat winners when they defeated the World Team again in 2011 with a score of 21-14. However, last year the World Team was able secure a victory when they defeated Team USA by a score of 35-29. On the World Team last year were American Samoa’s David Katina and Sonny Sanitoa. Last year was Katina’s third year on the World Team and it was Sanitoa’s second. The 2010 World Team also had American Samoa’s Breck Coulter and Aiulua Fanene.To be eligible for the IFAF World Team program, players must be nominated by their national federation and are evaluated by the coaching staff based on film review and weekly training log results collected through the IFAF World Team portal. According to the International Bowl 2013 website- www.internationalbowl.com, the World Team consists of players from American Samoa (4), Canada (25), Mexico (4), Austria (6), Netherlands (2), Spain (1), Australia (1), Denmark (2), Brazil (1), Japan (3), France (2), and Sweden (2). Samoa News spoke with the four players who will be departing the territory today, and all stated that this was a great honor to be playing on the World Team and they will try their best to help their team bring home the victory over Team USA.