Josh Lowe gets some serious air time heading for the basket. Photo Tetsuro MitomoAshburton basketballer Josh Lowe is trading his summer for the cooler climes of Sarasota in the United States, where he will spend the next four months training for a shot at a college basketball scholarship.

Lowe, 6’8”, will be resident at the Impact Basketball Academy and devote his days honing his skills, game and physical prowess to catch the eye of college recruiters.

A standout for the Ashburton College senior boys’ basketball side this year, the trip will be his third visit to the US in 12 months.

He went to Florida last April with an Impact New Zealand development side and was in Las Vegas in July with their elite team.

Lowe, who has just turned 18, hopes his star will continue to rise at the training academy.

His goal is a four-year scholarship at a division one school.

Off the court, he must also impress with his schoolwork, so his training days will include preparing for the all-important SATs.

If he succeeds, he will join a growing list of young Kiwi basketballers heading to the states to play ball.

Lowe has been playing basketball since Year 5, when the sports officer at Borough School spied the tall youngster and signed him up for miniball.

He has not looked back, making rep teams since his first at under 12.

He still remembers coaches Tim Johnson and Mike Johnson that year who taught him some important basics.

The opportunity to play the sport he loves at college level in the US has the full support of parents Jodene and Andrew Lowe, who have watched him develop over the years and encouraged his love of the game.

It will be a foreign feeling watching games from afar via livestream instead of being court-side.

​Since school finished in November, he has continued to work on his skills at home and on the court.

He has also been committed to a strength and condition programme with personal trainer Frank Connelly aimed at adding bulk to his lean frame.

There are few days he doesn’t pick up a basketball.

While Lowe has easily been amongst the tallest on court in New Zealand, in the US he will work on his skills as a small forward or power forward.

He played in the Canterbury Rams summer league and has been scrimmaging regularly in Ashburton at Basketball Mid Canterbury’s Oxford Street stadium.

He’s excited and nervous about the next leg of his basketball journey, which starts on January 3 with a solo trip to involving 19 hours flying time from Christchurch to Auckland, San Francisco and then Tampa.

Looking back to 2017, he credits college coach Pip Johnston with helping him take his skills to a new level, with one-on-one summer trainings.

Johnston’s hard fitness training through the year also paid dividends.

“Pip has been the coach who has helped me the most.

“At the end of Year 12 at least once a week I went to EA and did drills and stuff which definitely helped.”

Lowe said the college basketball in the past year had provided several highlights, including his role in AshColl’s comeback game against Burnside at the South Island secondary schools’ tournament.

There were many other games in which he topped the stats chart for shooting or rebounding.

Now he is looking forward to a new challenge.

By Linda Clarke © The Ashburton Guardian - 29 December 2017