Rising basketball star Caleb Fuller has become the latest talented sportsperson from the county to be awarded a grant from Suffolk SportsAid.
Fuller, who plays his club basketball for Ipswich Basketball Club, is already an England age group international having represented the country at under 15 level in 2014 and again this year at under 16 level.
Technical and performance manager for Basketball England, Vladan Dragosavac, described him as “a pivotal part and valued member of the England national basketball team programme for the last two years”.
Fuller also received praise from Dragosavac for his attitude saying “Caleb’s dedication, discipline, work ethic and commitment are exemplary”.
Fuller received his grant from representatives of Handelsbanken, Pound Gates Chartered Insurance Brokers and Suffolk Institute of Directors, three of the seven businesses that have recently joined forces to establish the Ipswich Sporting Lunch Club.
The club aims to raise money to help talented young sportsmen and women from Suffolk, like Caleb Fuller, with the cost of training and competing at national and international level. Typically aged 12 to 18 the young athletes that SportsAid supports face huge challenges, making great sacrifices every day of their lives to train and compete. They train for more than 15 hours a week after school, travel more than 600 miles a month and spend more than £6,000 a year on their sport.
Martin Fish from Handelsbanken said “Caleb is exactly the reason why have established the Ipswich Sporting Lunch Club. He is super talented and a wonderful prospect. However, to maintain his level of performance he needs to travel extensively to train and compete. This can be really expensive so anything we can do to ease the burden and enable him to focus on his basketball will, we hope, help him achieve even greater things in the future.”
After receiving his grant Fuller commented “I really do appreciate SportsAid’s support. It will be a huge help with all the commitments that I have coming up with the national team.”