College Volleyball Coach Travels to American Samoa

Recruiting to Build Athletics Teams Become Coaches' Top Priority
2/3/2012 9:23:00 AM


Over the Christmas break, Wentworth Head College Volleyball Coach and Activities Director Lindsey Mesner traveled to the island of American Samoa to recruit students for Wentworth and to attend the annual Samoa Bowl festivities. “Traditionally Wentworth draws many American Samoans who want to do their coursework at a military school and participate in ROTC,” Mesner commented, “currently seven percent of our campus enrollment are students who call the island home, and there are more Samoan students who currently come from homes in cities across the lower 48 United States.”

Samoa Bowl is an annual week long athletic competition where teams from American Somoa, Hawaii and even a California participate in volleyball, softball and baseball tournaments competing for “island rights” in the South Pacific Ocean. The main event (and reason the bowl week initially began) is a football game between all-star teams from American Samoa and Hawaii, both areas with outstanding football athletes. The festivities leading up to the football game that Coach Mesner attended included the opening ceremonies held at Tafuna High School, volleyball team practices at American Samoa Community College, dinner hosted by Governor Tulafono, Samoa Bowl volleyball tournament matches at American Samoa Community College, dinner hosted by Governor Tulafono’s wife, dinner hosted by Congressman Eni’s staff and also toured the island with her hosts Paul and Pamata Von Dincklage who are the parents of current student and college volleyball player Pamalyeen Von Dincklage.

Coach Mesner noted “Volleyball and football are definitely the most prominent sports on the island of American Samoa, everyone and I mean everyone has a volleyball net in their yard or village and everywhere we drove you would see people outside playing. Football is the other main sport on the island and if there was an open park or yard available that did not have a volleyball net, then there were people of all ages playing football, from youth practices to young adults and teens throwing the ball around.” Coach Mesner also stated that the hospitality on the island was some of the best that she’s ever experienced. “My hosts, the chairman of the Samoa Bowl Committee, Peter Gurr, Governor Tulafono and everyone else I met on the island welcomed me with open arms. The island is really a very friendly place and everyone I encountered was very interested to hear more about Wentworth and the process of applying for and attending college. I also spoke with parents, family members and friends of our current students and they were very excited to hear about how the Corps of Cadets was enjoying their time at Wentworth and all about everything they had experienced so far this year.”