Ashburton basketballer Ashlee Strawbridge prepares for Gator Winter Classic tournament in Las Vegas. Photo Jamie AdairVery soon, Ashlee Strawbridge will be swapping Boxing Day sales and New Year’s celebrations at home for basketball in Las Vegas.

Leaving for Las Vegas on Boxing Day, Ashlee will be playing for the Mainland Eagles at the Gator Winter Classic.

The team will stay for 18 days and compete with 28 other teams.

Not originally part of the main squad, Ashlee was called into the squad from the reserves and is the team’s youngest player.

The squad is classed as U-18 but the Ashburton College Student has only just finished Year 10 and will be surrounded by mainly Year 12 and 13 students.

Mum Paula will be travelling with Ashlee and will be manager of the team.

Ashlee has been part of the Mainland Eagles academy for the past year.

Trainings operate during school terms on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with Ashlee attempting to attend as many of these as possible.

Having picked up basketball at age six, Ashlee started to take things seriously in Year 8 after making it into the Mid Canterbury rep team.

Until this year she had partnered her basketball with netball but chose to stop netball this year to focus on basketball.

Ashlee’s main goal is to play college basketball in the United States.

This tournament could be a great proving ground as all the games will be filmed, and colleges will then have access to these recordings to use as scouting material.

Ashlee is also hoping to represent New Zealand at age-grade level.

She is currently waiting to hear back about the trial list for the next stage of trials for the New Zealand team.

By Jaime Pitt-MacKay © The Ashburton Guardian - 23 December 2016