Original title: Six young players won basketball scholarships and will study in the United States.
The winners of the 2024 Joseph Tsai Basketball Scholarship were announced on the 7th. Six shortlisted players aged 14 to 15 will study in the United States.
According to Yang Kun, the person in charge of the scholarship project, applications for the class of 2024 were opened in September last year, and a total of 260 application materials were received from across the country. After the preliminary selection, 47 applicants entered the interview and training camp, including 16 girls. The expert review team assessed the students’ basketball, academic and overall qualities, and finally a total of 6 young players, 5 boys and 1 girl, won the award. They will leave for the United States this fall.
The six selected players are: Han Dongchen from the Innovation Harbor Branch of the High School Affiliated to Xi’an Jiaotong University, Liu Jinghan from Beijing No. 20 Middle School, Wang Ziming from Miyun No. 3 Middle School in Beijing, Yang Zhuoheng from Dongguan Guangming Middle School, Zhou Zhanfeng from the High School Affiliated to Peking University and Chengdu Zhou Yifan from Tianfu New District No. 7 Middle School. Among the five male players, three are guards with a height of 1.91 to 1.94 meters, and the other two are forwards. The tallest is Yang Zhuoheng, who is 2.01 meters tall.
Greg Stolte, a foreign expert who has participated in the recent three scholarship reviews, said that the main selection criteria for the review team include the basketball level, development potential and academic level of the young players. In basketball, experts and coaches will evaluate their basic skills, shooting ability, whether they are team players, level of commitment, defense and rebounding attitude, etc. From a non-basketball perspective, experts and coaches will observe players’ personalities, including training attitude, communication and feedback with coaches, leadership of teammates, etc.
The Tsai Chongxin Basketball Scholarship is a public welfare project. Its predecessor is the “Chinese Basketball Association Elite Program” launched in 2019. This time it is the fourth batch of students announced. This project is open to the whole society and selects young people of appropriate age who are interested in becoming outstanding basketball players to study in boarding high schools in the United States. It provides comprehensive scholarships including tuition, accommodation fees, etc. during the study abroad period until the students graduate from high school.
Since 2019, the project has funded a total of 15 students in three sessions to study and play in the United States. Among them, Wang Furui and Li Xinyi, the first students who went to the United States in 2019, received full basketball scholarships from Northwestern University and Manhattan College in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I respectively. Li Xinyi participated in the U19 Men’s Basketball World Cup with the team last year and was selected for the latest The first Chinese men’s basketball short training camp. As 10th graders, Xun Sinan and Xun Sifeng of the Class of 2022 have received full basketball scholarship invitations from multiple universities. Last year, Xiu Sinan won the third place in the U16 Asian Men’s Basketball Championship with the team, averaging 9.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. This year, he was selected for the U17 National Men’s Basketball Team. (Reporter Wang Jingyu)
(Editors: Yang Yuboluo, Li Nanhua)
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