Victor George and Joseph Richards pursue the American dream.

After completing two years at Northolt High School both Victor George and Joseph Richard accepted scholarships from American schools to continue their education and basketball career in the USA and have settled into their programmes.  

Victor committed with Solid Rock prep school in Georgia and will spend the next season under the watchful eye of Coach Linzy Davis whose experience includes dealing with a wealth of high profile megastars such as Carmelo Anthony, Ty Lawson, Kevin Durant, Robin and Brook Lopez, Rudy Gay and Thaddeus Young to name just a few. Victor has settled in well to life in the USA with Coach Linzy very positive about Victors prospects, commenting: “Victor is a versatile talent that should excel in our fast-paced system. He can play several positions and his shooting range should open a lot of options for us”. 

Joseph Richards committed with Westlake Prep in Florida, with Coach Eric Newsome equally optimistic about his potential when he stated” We are glad to have Joseph join the Westlake Bulldog family. He has shown great potential to become an impact player as he is very skilled on both sides of the ball. We are looking for Joseph to have a breakout season this year”. 

Despite the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic during their time at Northolt High School, the provision of the Future Stars Sporting Excellence Programme through London United Basketball Academy allowed for the players to develop their academics alongside their sports performance on a fully integrated programme and provided unique opportunities, experience and exposure for the aspiring athletes. Both Victor and Joseph were provided opportunities including traveling to Romania and Slovakia to compete in the Under 20 European Youth Basketball league against top European club teams, gained an invitation from Estudiantes Madrid where they spent one week fully paid by the Spanish professional club and were both selected to GB Under 20 Squad training camps.  In addition, although both players secured places at UK Universities these were on deferred placements to allow them to pursue their basketball career and commit to the valuable scholarships offered to them. 

Emma Chambers, CEO of the Future Stars sporting Excellence Programme outlined how unusual the path of both players was to secure their scholarships. “We are delighted that both Joseph and Victor have been offered such great opportunities in very respected establishments in the USA. The journey of both players perfectly underlines our philosophy of developing young aspiring players. Due to the covid-19 pandemic we met Joseph on a local outdoor court and at this point he had never played organised basketball before. Victor was playing centre in his previous club and within two years became a very effective combo guard. Thanks to a combination of their hard work, fantastic coaching and exposure to a very high standard of international basketball they both became players in high demand and were offered several fantastic options both in Europe and the USA. We are all incredibly proud of them both and are excited to see what the future holds for them.”