The ITF Development Officer, Darran Wrighton writes that ” The scenic location of the 6 court Tennis Centre in Pago Pago; American Samoa was to be the venue for the EPRC 2014. Situated right next to the sea with the mountains as a backdrop, this venue was the beautiful setting for 5 days of hard fought matches.
American Samoa were fantastic guests with the parents providing a wonderful breakfast spread each day, lunches provided by local sponsorship and the ever popular evening BBQ provided by the American Samoa Tennis Association (ASTA). Over 60 players from American Samoa, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti competed in the event with Tahiti sending a particularly strong squad for 2014.
The first couple of days were spent battling out the round robin events, one of the hallmarks of this years event was the fighting spirit of the host nations players, especially against each other. Every day there was a match of at least 2 hours duration which is a testament to the “never give up” attitude displayed by the local players.
As the week drew on it was evident that the Tahitian players were becoming pretty dominant in the majority of the draws however local players were not going to let them have it all their way and the local pairing of Kevin Maukoloa and Jummah Vigas showed their visitors a strong display of team work in the doubles. Local favourite Larry Magalasan showed that the hard work that he has been putting into training the USA has paid off by playing determined tennis all the way through the event.
Unfortunately as the Pacific Oceania Junior Championships was directly after the EPRC all the matches had to be squeezed into the short time frame of Monday to Friday morning as the qualifiers for the POJC had to leave by Friday in American Samoa as in Samoa would have already been Saturday and the only remaining flights were early Sunday morning. Again thanks to the Host nation for managing to somehow hold flights for the players who had to go straight from the venue to the airport to get the crucial connection to Samoa.
The tournament managed to stay on course though, even with a few rain showers to test the scheduling abilities of the referee. The tournament coordinator Florence Salesa managed to multi task everything at the event and fulfilled many roles at the event for which she has the gratitude of the referee for.
Finals day was to be a sunny affair as the rainclouds had been chased away.
Team Tahiti featured prominently in many of the finals but in the final listings for the POJC it was pleasing to see that there were qualifiers from all of the countries that entered the event.
ASTA president Billy Young and Tennis Samoa President Raymond Schuster presided over the Closing ceremony with the local sponsor thanking all the players, coaches and parents for such a great event.
The following players were chosen to represent the East Pacific Regional team in 2014.
12 & under Boys:
Gillian Osmont Tahiti
Vaitea Molinear Tahiti
Tuapasi Afemui Tonga
OTF Wildcard
Sigi Palelei Tonga
12 & under Girls:
Naia Guitton Tahiti
Lea Lamorelle Tahiti
Eleanor Schuster Samoa
OTF Wildcard
Leafine Cronin Samoa
14 & under Boys:
Michael Emery Tahiti
Honarii Joutain Tahiti
Larry Maglasan American Samoa
14 and under Girls:
Michelle Miller American Samoa
Lessei Perelini American Samoa
Tyra Loulanting Samoa
16 and under Boys:
Manoa Desvignes Tahiti
Rehiti Chen Meun Tahiti
Kevin Maukoloa American Samoa
OTF Wildcard
Jummah Vigas American Samoa
16 and under Girls:
Charity Sagiano American Samoa
AnasisSaipele Samoa
Sina T’ei American Samoa
OTF Wildcard
Fatima Pati American Samoa
The results can be found at: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/winners.aspx?id=29EC6106-46FF-45F4-9EC1-90D8F1840D36