The American Samoa Table Tennis Association is hoping to send a local delegation to compete in the 2015 Pacific Games set to be held in Papua New Guinea.

While table tennis is not yet a popular sport in the territory, ASTTA president Ken Tupua is optimistic that as they continue to develop and promote the sport, it will eventually attract more interest from the general public.

Anyone interested in training, coaching, or refereeing table tennis is invited to the Tony Sola’ita Baseball Stadium in Tafuna on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 4p.m. to learn from Oceania Table Tennis Training Officer Michael Brown who will be conducting the training until Nov. 29

In a telephone interview with the Samoa News yesterday, Tupua said table tennis is not a big program locally but there are currently five clubs in the territory who use balls, tables and rackets - all provided by the ASTTA.

Tupua said they have a hard time trying to train local players, as they are currently using two rooms at the Tony Sola’ita Baseball Stadium and because each room can only accommodate one table, “it is not conducive to good training.”

Tupua is hopeful that with Brown at the helm conducting training programs this month, they can start holding monthly competitions afterwards. He explained that they are mandated by the AS National Olympic Committee to hold a national championship once a year and be active, and that is their goal for the ASTTA.

A total of 21 countries fall under the Oceania Table Tennis Confederation, American Samoa included. Tupua said they recently received a donation of three tennis tables, rackets and balls from the Confederation and they are happy with that.

He said their goal is to get kids involved, and their target age group for introduction into table tennis is 8-12 years old which he said is the ‘perfect’ age for youngsters to learn the right basics and fundamentals. “If we catch them at the right time, they will maintain good form and play the right way,” Tupua said.

This month’s training will be a second for Brown who will be touching on everything from refereeing to coaching.

Tupua said that following the training, they anticipate holding local competitions and forming a few more local clubs, “moreso for competition here, than outside.” Tupua said it would be “useless” to look for outside competition when there aren’t good people to pick from locally and that is why they want to see the establishment of more clubs on island.

The ASTTA president said they have a list of “pretty good kids” in the 15-17 age group who started playing when they were 12 years old and their goal is to pick up more kids along the way.