2024 | American Samoa receives donor funding, will also join the Big West Conference

[TuscanSota]

 

Following news earlier this week, American Samoa College received a generous donation from Dole Food Company executive Mauro Ngata, a former graduate alumnus of the college. The donation is a disclosed amount is supposedly enough to revitalize not only the basketball program but will also go towards renovations of a new basketball center on campus in Pago Pago, American Samoa -- with a clause stating the center be named the Dole Center.

"As a graduate of American Samoa College I often attended the basketball games after class. Watching the Kingfishers face off against Guam and Chaminade from the student section were some of my favorite memories whether we won or loss. To hear of the state of the program earlier this week, I cannot stand by while rival schools were able to make the jump while the college lost support." Ngata was quoted saying in a press conference earlier this morning.

Following the miraculous donation Ngata was immediately added to American Samoa College's board of directors and has begun an investigation in how the college lost its athletic funds.

 

With the program back in swing, the Big West immediately sent an invitation to American Samoa to join the conference, bringing it's full membership to 14 schools that stretch not only in the American West but now in Micronesia.

 

Student support for the program has only increased following this morning's news, with the new basketball center -- in spite of it's new name -- has been nicknamed "The Banana Dome".

 

The Kingfishers will be joining SimCBB for the 2024 season alongside Guam, Chaminade, Hartford, St. Francis Brooklyn, and West Georgia. This is the final realignment announcement. The Kingfishers have quite the rebuild on their hands, considering that their entire team has entered the transfer portal earlier this week.