Date: Thur, Jan 07, 2010

Ballarat Basketballers Home From U.S Tour

Two local basketball players have just returned home from 19 day tour of the United States where they represented Basketball Victoria Country on its annual tour.

The tour group is made up of players from scholarship holders from the National Intensive Training Centre Program managed by Basketball Australia.

Anthony Fisher from the Wildcats Club and James McMaster from the Celtic Tigers Club are both members of the U/18 Ballarat Miners Squad for 2010 and both boys have benefitted enormously from the international experience against very highly ranked division one school teams in North and South Carolina.

Also travelling with the tour group is Ballarat Lady Nuggets Coach Rob Baker who is coaching the girl’s tour group.

The boys played 7 games on tour and while beaten in all games they enjoyed the experience of playing against high quality division 1 standard opponents.

During the tour the players also have the opportunity of a homestay with a US family and this is another fantastic cultural experience.

The tour group also get to attend US men’s and women’s College games which exposes them to the standards required for any player considering a College scholarship as a future educational and basketball opportunity.

Visits to University North Carolina and Duke Campuses also provided an insight into the lifestyle of the US College students.

The team’s last game at Ravenscroft had been cancelled due to snow storms in Raleigh but the group remained in Charlotte which also experiencing heavy snow.

The last two days of the tour were all play and no work with the team visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios before departing LA for home and arriving on Christmas Eve.