Leura's Ashling O'Doherty is built for basketball, it just took her until her mid-teens to figure that out.
"I started playing basketball at a high level quite late into high school, so in a way I've always been the little fish in a big pond but I've always managed to float and succeed every time I went up a level," she said.
The former Blue Mountains Grammar School student, Katoomba junior representative player and current Penrith Panthers player in the Waratah Championship League (WCL) - now 19 years old and 1.96cm tall - has certainly made up for lost time.
By month's end she will board a flight to Colorado, armed with a recently awarded basketball scholarship with Trinidad State Junior College, for whom she will play in the US college competition under head coach Rich Holden while completing studies towards an Associate of Arts degree.
The scholarship covers training, tuition, accommodation, meals and course materials and the opportunity to play against and learn from the best basketball talents in the world in a nation that can't get enough of the sport.
"It's so exciting - their coach [Holden] says they pull in pretty big crowds at college games, which will be something I'm not used to," O'Doherty said.
"Americans really care about their basketball.
"I think it's going to be pretty hard over there and very intense, there will be lots of very early mornings and at least four hours of training every day, but hopefully I can rise to it and be an asset to the team.
"I'm told that Trinidad State is located right at the base of a mountain and is near a big national park, so it shouldn't feel too different to home."
Ashling said it was spending time with Sydney Kings coach Damian Cotter while at training camps as a NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder since 2013 that inspired her to apply to US universities.
"He [Cotter] put the idea of going to the US in my head at a time when I'd heard of it but didn't think it was a realistic option.
"He just said if you work hard, are serious about your basketball and really go for it, there are opportunities over there to elevate your game."
She sent scholarship applications featuring video footage of her playing and training to dozens of American universities until she received the good news directly from Mr Holden.
"He told me it is going to be tough and there will be lots more training sessions than I'm probably used to, but it's a good environment and the playing group is very close and united."
Ashling stepped up a few gears in the first half of this year's WCL competition and attributes her best year on the basketball court to being given extra responsibilities by the Panthers' new coaching team and tailored tuition and support by Ian Hopkins.
"The coaches gave me some extra court time in the WCL, so my only thought was to repay that trust shown in in me by playing well."
A big Sydney Kings fan, O'Doherty said knowing that Springwood native Angus Brandt's successful US college basketball stint with Oregon State Beavers led to a full-time playing contract with Sydney on his return last year was encouraging.
"Seeing his success over there and how that experience lifted his game so much makes me think about what I can do during my time there."
O'Doherty's training commitments start the week she arrives in Colorado, classes begin in August and the US Junior College Basketball season tips off in October.