Stefan Fearnley Discusses His Sports Scholarships USA Experience

Wed 24 Sep 2008

Stefan Fearnley, a basketballer from NSW, recently returned after competing in the ‘International Showcase’ event held in Florida. Stefan discusses his experience on the Sports Scholarships USA program and his subsequent offers to go to college in America.

“I had a fantastic time, met a lot of great guys from all over the world, teamed up with a guy from Western Australia and came back with 13 scholarship offers 6 of which were athletic offers. I would recommend the experience to anyone.

My parents and I spent nearly one year working on preparing paperwork and DVD’s in an effort to try and gain a scholarship to the US. I’ve wanted to go college in the States since I was about 14 but unless you’re scouted it seems to be really difficult to get any interest from US coaches from here.

We followed the process - sent over academic results/multiple DVD’s – many of which never arrived or they didn’t work once they got there. We also ended up putting the DVD onto private you tube. Many coaches replied and asked me to come over for “a try out” but that was not a viable financial option particularly as they were at opposite ends of the States. Many responses said I wasn’t tall enough (6’5”) or they didn’t have a spot for my position.

In desperation my mum went online to see if there was any other way of getting to the US and that’s when she accidentally found the Student Placement Australia (SPA) website. We checked out the site, called the SPA office and after speaking to the program manager I eventually made the decision to go to the Showcase. It was a decision I’ll never regret. It cost a fair bit all up but the experience, the offers and then the decision to attend college starting in January made everything worthwhile.

The coaches were fantastic and I ended up taking an offer from one of the coaches who was coaching at the Showcase (his offer was not included in the Showcase offers). I’ve included some photos of the guys that I mostly hung out with. I teamed up with one guy in particular (the guy from WA) and we worked really well on the court together and are now going to the same college starting in January. Even though we were both offered a couple of scholarships at NCIA Div II colleges, we both decided to go to a NCAA Junior College for two years with the view to transferring to a Div II University after two years. The decision of which college to attend was not taken lightly and we considered all the options pretty carefully.

I think the other great thing about the Showcase was that it took the hassle out of trying to communicate with coaches from the other side of the world and convince them that you could actually play, that you were keen, that you would work hard/train hard and that simply by attending you were serious about wanting to get to the States.

I am looking to be a physiotherapist so I guess I was pretty lucky with my offers in that Pre Physical Therapy Degrees were offered at all but one of my scholarship offers

We saw a lot of Southern Florida and also really enjoyed the tourist parts of the Showcase (Universal Studios, Beaches, Clubs, etc). The food was fantastic at both campuses and we were really well looked after by everyone. I missed my connection at LA due to flight delays from Sydney and the emergency contact/message system from IDEA worked well and when I finally arrived at Miami I was met by IDEA which is pretty nice when you’re in a strange environment for the first time. The accommodation was good, weather was great – Showcase was great! J

These pics are of me and some of my mates from the Showcase. That's me, second from the left in the 2nd photo!

Cheers,

Stefan