FRESH from a breakout NBL 1 season with the Newcastle Falcons, Emily Foy has set her sights on a national under-20s title before jetting off to college in the US.
A knock down shooter, Foy has been named in the NSW side along with Maitland guard Mila Wawszkowicz to contest the nationals in Geelong from February 14-19.
The 18-year-old was a part of the NSW team which finished fourth, losing a bronze medal play-off to Queensland, at the 2022 under-20s championships in Mackay in April.
"It is always nice to be named in a state team," Foy said. "Newcastle has a pretty strong history in the under-20s. It is a bit confronting but I think we can get the job done."
NSW will have three training camps in January before the championships, which will be Foy's last big tournament before heading to Longbeach University in California on a scholarship.
The Francis Xavier College year 12 graduate committed to the NCAA Division 1 university in May and visited the campus earlier this month.
"It was pretty exciting. I had a smile on my face the whole time," she said. "The campus is about 30 minutes south of Los Angeles.
"I had spoken to the coaches on the phone and via zoom. To meet them and see everything was great."
Foy's older brother, Jacob, went to college in Hawaii and is now playing NBL 1 in Victoria with Knox and training with South East Melbourne Phoenix.
"I never really grew up going college is what I want to do," she said. "It was probably seeing Jacob go through made me want to have that experience. It was a long process. The coaches at Longbeach reached out to me and the campus looked nice. It is a conference I thought I would be able to play in."
Foy departs for California in July.
Apart from the nationals, she will play for the Newcastle Falcons in the first half of the NBL1 East competition.
The Falcons, led by US import Nicole Munger and Australia Gems representative Chyra Evans, finished third last season before going down to Manly 78-75 in the semi-final.
Evans departed for the Michigan University on the eve of the play-offs.
Foy, in her first full season, grew in stature and confidence.
She had 17 points to go with three rebounds and two assists in the loss to Manly.
Overall, she averaged 12.38 points, four rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
"I was a bit surprised," Foy said. "It was the new NBL1 - better teams, better players - and I was really happy with how I went.
"As the season progressed everyone got confidence in everyone else. It was a good environment to be in and show what I could do."
The Falcons have started preseason training.
"I had a couple of weeks off after school finished, but am starting to get back into it with the Falcons," she said. "We are doing skills sessions twice a week and then, after Christmas, the NSW camps start."
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