The Warrior Nation has re-evaluated and accepted their downfall last year against the Vikings as a focus to build on something even stronger coming into this year’s 2015-16 ASHSAA Football Season.

Samoa News Pre-Season Promos bring you the No. 2 team from last year — Tafuna High School, “Home of the Mighty Warriors” and their preparations throughout the summer for this year’s American Samoa High School Athletic Association’s Football League.

Last season, Tafuna drove an undefeated record through both rounds of the regular season match-ups.  They survived the play-offs, but were stunned with the biggest upset of the season, when they lost to the Fagaitua Vikings in the championship game of the year, their one and only loss out of the whole season, placed them humbly into last year’s gridiron history — at second place.

Reflecting on their heartbreaking loss this past season, Tafuna Warriors Football Program Head Coach Okland Salave’a told Samoa News “unfortunately last year we came up short, but it’s something to learn from and it’s a focus to build on — good things happen when you fall or lose something. It makes you rethink, it makes you go back and re-evaluate what you’re doing and see if there are changes that need to be made to perhaps give your team a chance to win this year.”

As to their preparations throughout the summer leading up to the season, Salave’a said, “this year, nothing has really changed. As humans, we are creatures of habit, and we continue to stay with what works, especially for football. The only thing that changes every year are the kids and the attitudes that they bring with them.”

He added, “for our team, we only have five returning players this year, and three of them were starters last year, so as you can see, the whole team is new. Some of them were moved up from JV, and some of them played the year before, but missed out last year.”

This year’s Warrior Nation football team just might have the smallest roster to compete in the Varsity Division, according to Salave’a. “This year we only have 31 players overall.”

THS’ head coach also commented on the changes they’ve made on the team. “Offensively, I think we are okay, we put in little wrinkles here and there just to try and make things look different, but actually, we are who we are, we pass the ball first then we set-up the run.”

Salave’a told Samoa News that in addition to their preparations this summer, the Troy Polamalu Fa’aSamoa Initiative worked for their team tremendously. “Our kids learned a lot position-wise and with the technique part of the game — especially in that the majority of our players are first year players.”

He noted that their preparation process for the football team normally starts in February, “but that’s just mainly weightlifting and conditioning. But we didn’t start to get into the physical aspects of our preparations until — the 2-week preparations for the Polamalu Camp, and from then on, we’re still going over plays one by one and trying to bring up the level of competition here in Tafuna.”

When asked about the Warriors’ main focus and goal for the overall season, Salave’a stated, “Our goal remains the same, to continue to be the best and try to win the championship at the end of the season.”

Salave’a said, “It’s going to be a tough year for us.  Our motto this year is just to survive, we just need to get into the play-offs and then anything can happen from there – but the team to beat now is Fagaitua.”

In conclusion, Salave’a “would like to thank our principal for her continuous support of our program, as well as the parents and their support for the team every week when they come out to support our scrimmages against other schools — a special shout out to all the alumni of Tafuna High School who are reaching out to make sure that the program stays strong and continues to remain on top.”

And to all the other teams on island that are competing in the upcoming 2015-16 ASHSAA Football Season, he “would just like to… wish all the coaches and teams good luck this year on the upcoming season – hopefully we’ll have a good season, and best of luck to everyone.”