BASKETBALL international Olivia Forster, a former deputy head girl at Saddleworth School, has her sights on a professional career in the sport and moved to East Anglia to help further her development.
The 16-year-old from Watersheddings is studying for A Levels at Copleston High School, Ipswich, where she is member of both their basketball and dance academies.
Olivia, a former pupil at Knowsley Primary, was scouted by the academy because of her achievements in basketball.
“Copleston is one of the few places where you can study A Level in dance, and that was one of the big reasons she has gone there because it was a perfect fit,” explained dad Jim who is Oldham Rugby Union Club’s first-team coach.
Olivia used to be a member of the Infinity dance school at Greenacres and Fierce Dance Academy, Shaw.
Point guard Olivia, who has represented England at basketball since Under-14s, has endured a couple of frustrating years because of Covid-19.
She was selected as part of the prospective Great Britain U16 team in June 2020 and the England U18 squad last summer, but they had only one camp and some internal games.
Olivia, who used to play in the junior basketball programme at Manchester Mystics, is hoping to be selected for Great Britain for this summer’s U18 FIBA European Championships 2022 for this summer which would be extra special as she is still one-year young for this age group.
Since moving to Ipswich, where she lives with a host family, she has made enormous strides with her basketball.
As well as playing for Copleston’s U19 academy team, Olivia is playing for both the Ipswich U18s and the senior side which plays in Women’s National Basketball League, division one.
Olivia was also recently a member of the Ipswich team which reached the national U18s cup final when they lost to City of London Academy (COLA) at Belle Vue, Manchester.
And looking beyond her A Levels, Olivia is looking at a potential basketball scholarship in America and has already had initial chats with a couple of colleges.
