Since 2007, Showtime Basketball Tours has taken dozens of Australian club and school basketball teams across the globe to play international competition in the U.S., Show- time director Kelvin Taylor explained.

The works of the program began in 2002, where it was his mission to bring basketball teams from Australia to the U.S. to expose athletes to the basketball atmosphere abroad.

“I started running tours for Australian high school players back in 2007,” Taylor explained. “Our first tour saw us take a group of talented Australian girls to the [U.S.] and play Division I colleges such as Northwestern University, University of Illinois-Chicago, and [the] University of Minnesota as college coaches said they [would] love to see [Australian] players first hand.”

After the success of their first tour, Taylor gained connections from various high school coaches across the U.S. which allowed the program to expand to about 50 participating Australian schools and clubs. Taylor explained that with these connections, he has a database of over 1,000 schools willing to participate in this opportunity.

“We often get calls from coaches who have heard about one of our teams playing a team in their area and how much they loved the experience asking if they can schedule a game with us in the future,” Taylor said.

With many Australian teams traveling to the U.S. to par- take in this program, Taylor explained that Showtime Basketball’s big mission is to provide Australian players with exposure to the basketball world in the U.S.

“Our aim is to provide each team the ultimate basketball experience with great games, access to visiting U.S. colleges, and of course seeing National Basketball Association (NBA) games,” Taylor said. “Each tour we coordinate is tailored to the needs of the school and [the] club.”

Along with the unique experience that Australian athletes get by playing abroad, Taylor explained that there are reasons that clubs and schools decide to travel and partake in this program.

“Clubs and schools run these tours for a variety of reasons,” Taylor explained. “Some [schools] just want to come to play games and experience the [United States and] others see it as a pathway to being recruited for college. We build the tours to suit what the club [or] school is looking for.”