From Stratford to the US
Basketballer Eva Langton will soon take a long last look at the beach near her Opunake home before she flies off to live nearly 5000 kilometres from the coast.
The Opunake student leaves Taranaki in August, not long after her 18th birthday, to begin a basketball scholarship at Western Nebraska Community College in the centre of the United States.
Although she will miss the beach, along with her family and school community, she’s looking forward to ‘‘the opportunity of a lifetime’’, building her skills as she plays basketball for the college alongside studying.
‘‘Over there I feel it will be step-up from here. When you put in effort, it’s going to reward you at some point, and I’ve been fortunate enough that it has,’’ she said.
Her scholarship coves all the costs of her tuition, accommodation and travel - everything except her fares to the United States. It was initially for one year with the likelihood of an extension for a second year,
Langton started playing basketball as a five-year-old. By 12 she was a Taranaki representative team member and played for her schools, St Joseph’s Opunake, and then for St Mary’s Diocesan School in Stratford, where she boarded for five years.
Her parents, Aarun and Stephenie, encouraged all three of their children to take up sports and family life was pretty busy as all three chose different sports.