She’s 17, almost 2m tall and 27 US colleges want her. This Aussie kid has everyone excited

1 week ago 3

When 17-year-old Sitaya Fagan received an offer to play basketball on a full scholarship at a top university in the US, she was so shocked she didn’t believe it was real. Then, she received 26 more.

To receive 27 offers from the best women’s basketball programs in the US is almost unfathomable and besides Fagan, has never been done by an Australian. Even more remarkable is that of the colleges that ranked in the top five last season, Fagan was offered a spot at four of them.

Sitaya Fagan at the Australian Institute of Sport.

“It was so exciting I didn’t believe it was real,” Fagan said when she received the first offer.

Even though Fagan has been scouted as a generational talent inside Australia’s borders for some time now, she didn’t think she’d pique the attention of US colleges so easily.

“This is a whole new world. As an Australian, you don’t think you get as much coverage as people in America,” she said.

“Especially for women’s [basketball] and especially for international kids. So when we started realising like oh, these American kids are getting offers, maybe we can get some too.”

Fagan started playing basketball because her mum Kirsten did and more obviously because she’s always been taller than everyone else. At 17, she’s 194 cm tall.

“It was definitely a struggle at the start, especially because I have curly hair, so I had a really short afro growing up. A lot of people got confused of my gender when I was younger but with basketball it was always an advantage so [I] couldn’t really complain.”

She was invited to join the Australian Institute of Sport’s basketball Centre of Excellence aged only 15 and last year travelled to the US with them to play in front of college scouts.

“I think at least 50 colleges were there watching,” she laughed.

In the bleachers was Dawn Staley, head coach of the University of South Carolina, who has won three national championships – tied third for the most a school has won. It’s also where A’ja Wilson, commonly considered the current best player in women’s basketball, went to college.

Perhaps Staley saw similarities between Fagan and Wilson, who also plays as a forward. Staley offered the 17-year-old a scholarship to attend South Carolina after that game, and it would have been an immediate acceptance if not for the 26 other schools vying for the Australian’s favour. Now, she has a big decision to make.

With her decision deadline looming in November, Fagan has narrowed her choice down to three schools to visit in person. First, she’ll fly into the west coast and visit the University of Southern California, who ranked fifth last season. Then, she’ll travel south to tour Texas University (fourth) before finishing at South Carolina (second).

Each school will make their last attempts to persuade Fagan to join them. But with the stakes this high, the courting began long ago. Since last year, Fagan said there have been phone calls, text messages and FaceTimes with college recruiters.

Sitaya Fagan has narrowed her decision down to three final schools.

South Carolina even digitally rendered the college’s jersey onto a photo of Fagan to show her a glimpse of what her future could look like on the university’s team.

The intensity of recruiting has only increased with the boom in women’s college basketball. Viewership has soared in the last few seasons, evident in players such as Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers who each have millions of social media followers and millions in sponsorship deals.

Viewership of the league is at a record high and still increasing. Clark’s final college game was viewed by 18.9 million people on ESPN, making it the most-watched men’s or women’s college basketball game in history.

It’s also never been more profitable thanks to a 2021 US Supreme Court ruling that athletes could profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) without losing their eligibility to play at the college level and a June settlement approving revenue sharing between colleges and their athletes. Although it’s not as easy yet for international students to earn due to their student visas, active lawsuits could change that in the very near future.

The opportunities for gain are benefits to an already sweet deal for college athletes. Tuition and boarding are paid for and exposure to American sports leagues (and their superior salaries) is far greater than at Australian universities. That’s largely why Australia has become the fifth-largest export of college athletes of any country in the world with about 1000 enrolled each year.

The rising social profiles and chance at celebrity status are things Fagan is looking forward to, not dreading.

“It’s actually really exciting, especially because the college [level] will keep growing and growing with NIL … You just want to get over there like right now,” she said. “I’ve always liked having an aesthetic social media so that’s going to be exciting for me but definitely staying humble.”

Besides her new world online, Fagan is also looking forward to life outside what will be a very intense athletic program.

“It is really exciting,” she said of the move. “Especially also being a person of colour, like how big that is in the community because obviously growing up in Australia I was the tallest and the darkest by far, which wasn’t a problem but growing up you do notice those things. But I’m just so excited for the whole experience, and the food,” she joked.