Former Kahuku High leader Sterling Carvalho guided American Samoa’s men’s flag football team to an unexpected 38-32 win over top-ranked Team USA at the IFAF World Championships. Aided by passer Taulia Tagovailoa, the squad finished fifth overall. Carvalho hopes to build on this success and earn the nation a spot for the sport’s Olympic start at the LA 2028 Tickets.
A Legal Battle Led Carvalho Toward a New Coaching Chapter Overseas
If anyone knows a lot about guiding a football team to a big victory, it’s Sterling Carvalho. During his time as the Kahuku head coach. The Kauaโi native led the Red Raiders to three straight HHSAA Open Division championships from 2021 to 2023, the sole three-peat in the program’s famous history. After an abrupt exit from his role in the early part of 2025, a legal case between Carvalho and the OIA started.
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Former Kahuku Coach Carvalho Leads American Samoa Toward the Olympic Bid
Despite an effort in court to return to the Kahuku sidelines, Carvalho started the 2025 season out of the game. Carvalho, a tutor at Hawaiโi Technology Academy, was not fully sure what was next for him in the coaching field until he was asked by Galu and Diane Tagovailoa. Flag football is starting as an Olympic sport in 2028, and American Samoa is trying to qualify.
Carvalho was given the role of lead coach, which he took. I love it, Carvalho told the Aloha State Daily about his experience thus far. Football is football, and I played flag football for a long period. I was blessed by this opportunity to lead the national team for American Samoa, so we built a group. The main task for Carvalho was to build a roster.
Carvalho Assembled a Flag Football Roster for American Samoa Team
He flew to the West Coast and ran tryouts, forming a group of eight players mostly from California and Arizona, all of them of Samoan ethnicity. The team then went to Ningbo, China, for the 2025 International Federation of American Football Men’s Asia-Oceania Flag Football Championship in October, finishing in third place out of 15 groups.
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Former Kahuku Coach Sterling Carvalho Sets Sights on Olympic Bid for Samoa
American Samoa’s third-place finish in the IFAF Asia-Oceania Championship was decent enough to earn a home at the 2026 IFAF Global Championships in Dรผsseldorf, Germany, in August. Of the 16 sides in the tournament, American Samoa’s IFAF world ranking of 33 was the lowest in the field. But the group got a major lift when quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, brother of Tua and son of Galu and Diane, combined with the squad.
Following a 21-7 first win over Australia, American Samoa’s true twitch to the contest, plus the flag football world, was its game against the United States, the world’s No. 1 team. The huge squad that had not lost since 2012 faced the lowest-ranked lineup in the tournament against the lowest. American Samoa shocked world champions with a 38-32 win over Team USA, led by Taulia Tagovailoa’s five landing passes.
American Samoa Stunned the Top-Ranked Team USA in a Historic Upset
The Americans were handed their first loss in 14 years. For those who have shadowed Carvalho’s career, American Samoa’s win over USA might have brought back reminiscences of Kahuku’s historic 2023 win over St. John Bosco of California, who were defensive national champions at the time. The win lacking the Red Raiders to a No. 9 national position by MaxPreps.
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Former Kahuku Coach Carvalho Aims to Lead American Samoa Toward Olympic Bid
Team USA and St. John Bosco were great experiences. Beating the nationally ranked top champs, it was amazing. But beating USA on the world stage, which no team was able to do in 14 years, was very special, Carvalho said. But give all thanks and praise to our Father in heaven for giving me that opportunity to be coach and for getting the players.
It was all about the players. They did an awesome job. They executed all that we planned and practiced. I was just so proud of them. Just so glad for the country of American Samoa. Nobody else outside of our team thought we could beat Team USA, but we believed. We were thinking about the Olympics, thinking about beating all these national powers in the world, mainly Team USA, and we believed that we could.
American Samoa Eyes a Path Toward the 2028 Olympic Games in Qualifying
With the victory, American Samoa won its group and lost 24-14 to Canada in the quarters. The team took fifth place out of 16 teams, though only the top three spots earned Olympic bids. Three spots have been won for the 2028 Games, while three more are available to make up the inaugural six-team field. American Samoa is surely in the running, and their path to qualifying will involve a lot of travel. Click to read more aboutย LA 2028 Tickets.
Sterling Carvalho, Former Kahuku Coach, Chases Olympic Dream for Samoa’s Bid
Next spring, the squad will head to Bali, Indonesia, for a local tournament, as well as a regional event in Australia. A talent search camp will be held too to see if there are other players who could be added as contributors to the team. If everything goes well for American Samoa, then the squad will head to Montreal, Canada, in June 2028 for another qualifying event from June 1-4.
Where two bids are up for grabs. The final spot before the 2028 Games will be given at another tournament in Orlando the next week. Carvalho spent many years coaching high school football, which involved the classic 11-on-11 format of gridiron football. Flag football, which is 5-on-5 on a smaller field, has been a new, fresh challenge.
Carvalho Adjusts to Flag Football While Planning His Coaching Future
Flag is definitely different, right? It pushes me further as a coach, Carvalho said. It’s just a new mindset. I’m fuller of energy because it’s something new, something I always have to plan, study, and draw up. It energized me to get out of my safe zone, to expand and try a different type of football out there. You’re going against nations, and you’re facing the world now.
Though flag football brought Carvalho back to the sidelines, he says he has not closed the door on coaching high school football. Some big jobs have opened across the state during his time off. Would he be open to a return to the high school level while keeping his mission to lead American Samoa to an Olympic sport? I can probably juggle the two.
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Q: Who trained the American Samoa flag team to an unexpected win over Team USA?
Sterling Carvalho led the American Samoa men’s team to a historic 38-32 win against Team USA.
Q: Which top quarterback headed the passing game for American Samoa during the IFAF World Championships?
Taulia Tagovailoa acted as the quarterback for American Samoa and threw five scoring passes in their major win.
Q: How did American Samoa place at the 2025 IFAF Asia-Oceania Flag Football Championship?
American Samoa finished in third place out of 15 teams at the local tournament held in Ningbo, China.
Q: What was American Samoa’s final placement at the IFAF World Championships in Germany?
American Samoa got a fifth-place result overall out of 16 teams playing in international groups.
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