Professional basketball hopeful Chadley Hargreaves is balancing three jobs in the hope of making it to America.

The 18-year-old from Sheffield was one of South Africa’s strongest high school prospects last year, but he was unable to get a scholarship to play in college.

That left him with limited options, to either stay in South Africa and hope to get noticed locally, or travel to America to play for an academy that fills the gap between high school and college.

He sees the latter as his only real chance of making it to the college, and hopefully, professional level.

“It is my dream to play basketball for a living and I am doing everything I can to make that happen,” said Chadley.

Chadley has been in touch with a few academies, but is currently focused on the Louisiana Knights, a post-grad (in the high school sense) academy from Lafayette, Louisiana. The Knights are not part of any college conference, but they play against junior colleges and other academies in the hope of getting their players onto full college rosters.

“They are doing everything their side to help me to get there, but there is still a huge cost involved,” he said.

To try and bridge that gap, Chadley has taken a job coaching at his former high school, Northwood in Durban North, while also offering private lessons and waitering on the side. That aside from beginning his studies next month.

“In case I cannot raise the money or if basketball does not work out, I would like to have something else to fall back on. I will be starting a BCom.”

Back on the basketball court, Chadley is a dynamic shooting guard and small forward at 1.93 metres (6’4″). He played for Northwood’s first team for a few years, coached by Salt Rock’s Kent Vanderyacht, which was one of the best school teams in the country. Last September, he also represented South Africa at U18 level.

If you are interested in taking lessons, offered privately at Townsend Park for between R250 and R320 per two-hour session, contact Chadley at 063 666 3923.

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