A team of teenage players will have the basketball experience of a lifetime when they fly out to the United States on Tuesday for a 20-day tour playing a series of games against high school teams.

The team consists of 15, 16, 17 and 18 year-olds from the Norths Bears junior representative program will play a series of games against high schools in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, as well as attend major NCAA and NBA games.

The Carolina and Georgia regions are well known for basketball, with North Carolina the home of storied college programs such as Duke University and North Carolina University and Georgia the home of NBA franchise Atlanta Hawks and a number of major university programs.

The Norths team consists of Harrison Clay, Alex Francis, Kieran Hayward, Bryan Hook, Jordan Hunter, Anthony Maras, Jack Murfet, Saxon Penn, William Stewart, Zac Williams and will be coached by NSBA Development Manager Peter Lonergan and 2014 Australian Under 14 Club Championships gold medal winning coach Hannah Wilson.

Lonergan said the tour was a great opportunity for the players both in terms of basketball and life experience.

“On a tour such as this, the basketball is obviously very important, but it is the life experience of international travel and culture that is the most valuable aspect,” he said.

“The Carolinas and Georgia have such great sporting and basketball tradition and for a group of teenagers to get the opportunity to visit basketball landmarks such as Duke and the Dean Smith Centre is fantastic.

“In 20 days the boys will travel to the US east coast, play nine games of quality basketball watch major college programs play and practice and attend an NBA game, so it will be a busy schedule for everyone involved,” he added.

Departing Tuesday, the team will spend just over two weeks on the East Coast, before finishing the tour in Los Angeles and flying back into Australia on Monday, December 22.

The tour has been put together by Horizons Sporting Events, the official tour partner of the Northern Suburbs Basketball Association and the NSBA would like to thank and acknowledge HSE for their efforts and support.