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Basketball England
AASE graduates US-bound
Monday, 16-May-2011Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) students Will Maynard, Barry Webster and CJ Bishop have recently graduated from Burleigh Community College in Leicestershire and will be continuing their basketball careers in the United States next season.
Burleigh College, in association with the British Basketball League's Leicester Riders, is one of 16 AASE institutions in the country that is designed to meet the needs of elite athletes aged 16-18 who wish to continue their sporting career and gain qualifications at the same time.
Burleigh's Head of PE Phil Gleadell is full of praise for the programme and the graduating players:
"The programme has been an outstanding success. Will came to us from Lancaster School in Leicester to further his basketball career, and has developed tremendously. He is now a much more complete player, as well as an outstanding shooter. It has also been very helpful to his academics because he has buckled down on that side as well, and is on course for his Sports Diploma, as well as completing AASE, which together are equivalent to 4 A levels.
"Barry barely played basketball before he joined, and his improvement has been meteoric, while CJ had already joined Burleigh from St Paul's in Leicester, and done one year of 6th form before joining AASE, and again his rate of improvement has been amazing.
"And, importantly, all three players go away with solid academic qualifications, which are essential to ultimately progress to US universities."
Maynard heads to Philadelphia where he has had a number of offers to take up high school basketball. He said, "I can't wait to go, and for me it is an outstanding opportunity."
Webster has opted to attend Maine Central Institute for one year before he hopes to be offered a full scholarship at Maine University. The 6'9" Coalville native said, "I travelled to the US last summer with a team organised by Guildford Heat coach Creon Raftopoulos to play in an AAU tournament in Florida, and it was a great experience. Now going there full time is a dream come true."
Guard CJ Bishop is still weighing his options and despite attracting the attention of several American high schools, he said, "This summer will be all about training relentlessly to give myself the very best option. I have an ambition to be a pro player, so it will be whatever it takes."
For more information on the AASE programme, please visit Basketball England website
