It's that time of year again, the start of the US college academic year and for 2014/15 we have four former Boomer junior girls heading over to the US.

Returning to the US for their sophomore (second) year of college is Emily Simons and Tessa Ramsay, while heading off for their freshman (first) year of college is Funda Nakkasoglu and Sam Moodie.

Em Simons actually returned to the US some weeks ago for summer school, but heads back to the University of the Pacific (NCAA Div 1) in Stockton California for her second year. The Tigers had a cracking year in 2013/14, making their conference finals, but just going down in their conference semi finals. Em saw limited court time in her freshman year, seeing court time in 6 games, but will certainly be looking to step it up this upcoming season.

Tessa Ramsay returned to Wichita, Kansas last week to join her team at the Newman Jets (NCAA Div 2). The Jets also had a great season last year, also making their conference finals but going down in the semis. Tess played all 27 games with the Jets in her freshman season and will certainly be looking to consolidate her role in the team for the upcoming season. Over the US summer break back in Australia, Tess also played the second half of the Big V season with our Youth Champ women who had a great season to make the Grand Final, but just went down to Knox to finish runners up.

After a long and loyal junior career with the Bulleen Boomers, Funda Nakkasoglu has also elected to take the next step in her basketball career at US college, signing with the Utah State Aggies (NCAA Div 1) to commence her college career. It's a big transition into college as a freshman, but we know Funda will pretty much ace it and we look forward to seeing how the Aggies go in the Mountain West Conference. Oh and just for a chuckle, when the Aggies announced the signing of Funda, they were careful to explain on her name - "pronounced Foon-da Knock-a-so-glue" ... so now we all know !

And finally, Sam Moodie is heading for Junior College at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming to begin her college adventure. The Sheridan Generals play in the Northern Wyoming Community College District in the NJCAA. The Generals already have a couple of Queensland girls as a part of their roster, so Sam will bolster the Aussie contingent at Sheridan. Sam was also a key part of our Youth Womens champ team this year, playing the whole season as part of her college preparation.

It's swings and roundabouts from a Club point of view, as we love seeing our juniors realise their dreams of playing at US college, but we lose them from being a part of our Big V program. Em was not able to suit up at all this year as her break was very short, while Tessa could manage the back half of the season with our Youth Women. We'll just have to wait and see if Funda and Sam are able to be back on court in Boomers uniform over their summer breaks.

So we wish all the girls good luck and have a great time - college is a fabulous life experience, but also very hard work, both on court and in the classroom. We'll track the progress of all the girls over the season and report on how they are going over the course of the US academic year.

(p.s. if we have missed anyone else heading to college, please let us know through the office)