A TRALEE teenager, who headed Stateside to a prep school earlier in August to further his basketball career, has just been offered a five year scholarship with a Philadelphia college.

Nineteen-year-old Cian Sullivan from Ballymac is to sign a letter-of-intent to play at LaSalle University after committing to the college while on a visit to the school’s Philadelphia campus last week.

Their men’s basketball team, the Explorers, play in the top division  of the NCAA and Cian will be only the seventh Irish player in history to get a scholarship to play college basketball in the US.

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The seven-foot tall teenager had won a scholarship at the $50,000 a year St Andrews prep school in Rhode Island USA, where he started in September, but La Salle coaches made two trips to watch him play and offered him a chance ‘redshirt’ next season and then play four years in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

To ‘redshirt’ is to delay or suspend an athlete’s participation in order to develop skills and lengthen his period of eligibility.

The St Andrews coach, Mike Hart said that Cian loves the game and is willing to work hard. He said Cian has a good shooting touch but lacks the strength to make a big impact in college right now.

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“Cian is going to be on the Mike Hart diet this year and try to gain about 20 pounds,” Hart told the Providence Journal. “He likes the weight room and is getting stronger and in two years I can see him being 230 pounds. He loves the game and is willing to work hard.”

St Andrews, is ranked in the top 25 basketball prep schools in America and a fantastic stepping stone for establishing a career in basketball.

A former alumni of St Andrews is current NBA star and former NBA Rookie of the Year winner, Micheal Carter Williams