An outstanding teenage basketball player from Kinloss will play for his country after being selected from an application pool of 365 players.
Tyler Clarke (14) said the moment he heard he had been chosen he felt as as if all his hard work had paid off. He will play for Scotland against England, Ireland and Wales in a tournament at the end of May.
But being the most northerly player in the team means lots of travelling, and the estimated cost of fuel, training, accommodation and match fees will tot up to £1400.
His parents have already pooled £900 and have set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise the remaining £500 towards the cost of getting him through the games in Dundee and Manchester.
Natural ability
Tyler’s mum Lee said he has always had a basketball in his hand from a very young age as his dad Martin, who plays basketball for the Army, has always encouraged it.
She said: “We realised he had natural ability when he started playing for the Inverness Lions back in 2017 when Martin was posted at Fort George. We then found ourselves in England, where he played National league u14s (from the age of 11) for the Abingdon Eagles and for Aspire England until 2023 when we moved to Kinloss.
Lee is from Glasgow and has family in Fochabers. She added: “We loved our time in Inverness so when the opportunity arose to come back to Scotland we snapped it up! We will settle here, Moray is such a beautiful part of the world!
She added: “Trying to secure funding from companies and charities has been very difficult we have exhausted all avenues and so here we are, asking for a little help towards a young athletes dream!”
“Tyler is a quiet and humble lad, sometimes I wonder if he really does know how good he is!? On the court is where Tyler is most at peace yet so alive!
“He has always stood out from a young age while playing basketball, his technical ability and understanding of the game is incredible! The Abingdon Eagles team won the u14s National League South conference!
“Tyler played for England too but never got to the tri nations because we were posted to Kinloss. Since playing back at the Inverness Lions this season, impressively he was the top scorer in the u14s National league and also played a key role in the u16s winning the National league Division 2.
Chuffed to be chosen
He has also started to pass on his experience to the local Forres team where he plays for both u16 and u18 Forres Tigers.
While trialling for Scotland there were 365 applicants at the first round. They whittled this down to 100 then another cut down to 40 and then the final cut down to 20 last week The final 20 will now go forward to play against England, Ireland and Wales in Manchester at the end of May.
Tyler added: “I am chuffed! I was quietly confident I’d make the cut. I’m so excited to play for Scotland. It’ll be hard so I hope we win!”
Lee says she is committed to supporting him every step of the way: “We just hope that one day basketball takes him somewhere”
If you can help, please donate here: https://gofund.me/0e95a5c9
