In American Samoa, a football team warms up with the Haka War Dance - something that's been passed down for ages to teach agility to warriors of size and strength.

Football was barely a blip anywhere on the planet when the United States annexed most of what would become American Samoa in 1900. Rugby is the American (Samoan) pastime, but football is seen as a ...

Noke Tago’s first airplane ride was a long one. A flight between American Samoa and the United States is roughly 15 hours. If you’re lucky. Tago said he flew eight hours to Hawaii, waited ...

American Samoa is the only place outside the United States where football has taken hold at the grass roots, the only one that sends its native sons to the NFL.

As Tyrehl Vaivao prepared to leave American Samoa for Vancouver at the start of sixth grade, he didn’t want to leave. His home, a small village named Petesa in the city Tafuna, was all he knew.

American football coaches, anyway. For years, they've beaten a path — or rather, taken the 11-hour flights from the West Coast — to the small U.S. territory that's about the size of the ...

She is here to promote the film Next Goal Wins, which tells the story of the American Samoa football team, the lowest-ranked country in the world, and the period during which they were coached by ...

According to the great Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, "The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet."For the American Samoa national football team, baby steps will have to do for this ...

Sure, football might be ingrained into the cultural fabric of nearby American Samoa, but on his home island of Savai’i, the western-most island in independent Samoa, rugby was still king. When ...

When Washington State defensive line coach Joe Salave’a went out to Faga’itua High School in American Samoa to recruit defensive tackle Robert Barber, he recalls noticing Shalom Luani, a ...

Tago and Oregon State teammate Rommel Mageo, also from Pago Pago, American Samoa, are both in Corvallis practicing with the Beavers’ football team. It’s their first time away from home. And ...