While head coach John Lizama acknowledges that his team enters the 2011 Pacific Games shorthanded and lacking extensive international experience, he still expects Guam's women's volleyball team to compete for the gold medal.
Lizama started his national team program in February 2010, and kept about 25 players practicing to form a pool from which to select his 12-woman traveling squad. Only nine, however, will go to the Pacific Games.
By Falaniko Vitolo Samoanews
One of the criteria the American Samoa Volleyball Association used to screen and select its players to represent American Samoa in the XIV Pacific Games' Indoor and Beach Volleyball tournaments in New Caledonia was that a candidate must be a non-smoker. "We were very strict about this rule when we sent out an open invitation to potential players..."Thirty answered no and they were let go. Some of them were very good volleyball players but we did not want to relax the rules to accommodate them."