With the summer sports programs up and running at this time, there are two programs that have been added to the list, one scheduled to begin today, the other in July.

For today, the 6th Annual American Samoa Goodwill mission group, sponsored by the June Jones Foundation, arrived last night with 29 traveling doctors, nurses, coaches and former National Football League (NFL) players.

They will begin their mission with the foundation presenting five $2,000 scholarships to selected athletes today at the Governors conference room. The scholarships are to student-athletes who graduated this year, and will be looking to head out to college, not only to further their athletic knowledge, but to further their education as well.

During the mission, there will also be ‘medical training’ for coaches and anyone else interested, and that training will be taking place at the Department of Agriculture conference room. The training will specifically focus on the taping of sprains and injuries, such as those which are the result of sports activities.

Tomorrow is the day for combined football for all Junior Varsity and Varsity football players at the Veterans Memorial Stadium; and on Monday, the group will also be visiting the Boys and Girls Club, the Fatu-O-Aiga Hope House and the LBJ Medical Center, where they will be making donations to each one, before leaving on Monday night's flight.

POLAMALU FOUNDATION

There will be more football training beginning on July 2, when the Troy and Theodora Polamalu Foundation will hold their football camp here in the territory which first began in 2011.

To date, it has not been confirmed if Troy Polamalu will be leading the foundation’s camp this year, as he did in 2011. In 2011, Troy accompanied by his wife, Theodora and their children, led the football camp that came to American Samoa. Highly successful, the camp ended with a music concert of Samoan artists paid for by the foundation and free of charge to the public.

This year, the foundation will hold both a football and a volleyball camp for local high school athletes, with the local Department of Education (ASDOE) taking the lead in coordinating these camps according to the ASDOE Athletic Program Director Tumua Matu’u.

Matu'u will be coordinating the volleyball camp for the Polamalu Foundation, while the president of the All-Poly Sports Organization, Alema Te’o, will be the football coordinator this year.

The football camp will be at the Veterans Memorial Stadium beginning on Tuesday, July 2, and continue through Friday July 5. According to the camp schedule, Tuesday has a scheduled starting time of 7:30 a.m. and training will last until 6:00 p.m., while Wednesday will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will go also until 6:00 p.m.

The last day of the camp, Friday July 5, is scheduled from 9:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

The Polamalu Volleyball Camp is scheduled to begin on Tuesday July 2 at 9:00 a.m. and last until 5:00 p.m. On Wednesday July 3 and Thursday July 4, it is scheduled to go from 8:00 a.m until 5:00 p.m., with the last day of the volleyball camp being Friday July 5, scheduled to be from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

 The volleyball camp will be held at the American Samoa Community College and the check in time is 7:30 a.m. according to Matu’u.

Matu’u also said that there will be a training for officials during the Polamalu camps, for anyone interested in becoming an American Samoa High School Athletic Association (ASHSAA) Official for the sports of volleyball, basketball or football, for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year.

“I invite anyone out who is interested in getting trained to become an official for any of these sports. I also strongly recommend that coaches attend this training as well,” said Matu’u.

According to Matu’u, the football officials training will run from July 2- July 6, and will take place at the Tafuna High School library and other locations.

It will be taught by Shannon Eastin, who was the first NFL female official and seven-year NCAA Division I & National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Basketball Official. She will also be conducting the basketball officials training that will go from July 4-6 at Tafuna High School.

The volleyball officials training according to Matu’u, will be conducted by Leslie Calles, who has 20 plus years as a NCAA Division I & NFHS Volleyball Official, former Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars women’s volleyball team assistant coach. He was also a former Snow College women’s volleyball team head coach. Both trainer-officials are sponsored and paid for by the Polamalu Foundation.

For more information on the officials training contact Matu’u at: tumuamatuu@hotmail.com.