The 18-year-old will join Zac Hodgetts at the Australian College of Basketball in Melbourne when it recommences in February.

“Zac will help a lot with my journey, as he and I share the same passion for the sport and love to work on our game as much as we can,” Caldwell said.

“Having somebody to train with all the time makes it a lot easier to stay motivated.

“After talking to Zac, my expectations when I head down there are to learn as much as I can about the game of basketball, while improving on my skills and become more conditioned to the game.

“By attending the college, I hope it will help me in the future towards my basketball career, wherever that may lead.”

But basketball hasn’t always been on the horizon for Caldwell, who didn’t start playing until year 10.

“I first started playing basketball when I was in year 10, the day my mates had joined the school basketball team and went for practice at lunch time,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be left by myself at lunch, so I went to see what it was about.

“I jumped in out of boredom and at the end of lunch break I wasn’t picked to play for the team.

‘‘The next week I went back and asked if I could play and got put on the bench most of the season.

“I didn’t play much, so at the end of year holidays my dad bought me a basketball hoop and every day I was out practising my dribbling, shooting, lay-ups, free throws, pretty much everything.

“When I went back to school, I became the go-to guy on the team.

‘‘Ray Browning, who also helped Hodgetts get into the college, also helped with my application of getting into the college.

“My strengths in the game would be my speed, my shooting and my voice in the court.

“But going to the college will help my weaknesses, which are shooting too much at times and not being able to stop the big guys under the basket.”

Originally from Hervey Bay, Caldwell played most of his basketball in the Australian Regional Basketball League tournament before moving out to Mount Isa.

“During my time in the ARRBL, I played against players such as former National Basketball League player Willy Farle, as well as Shane Davis, Will Shackleford, Mathew McDaniels and James Leegon,” he said.

“One of my most fond memories came playing in the ARRBL in my last game.

“My team was down by 10 points  with 35 seconds left and one of my teammates yelled out ‘let Josh bomb some threes’.

‘‘So I ran down, hit one three, got a quick defensive stop, ran back down, hit another open three.

“We came back on defence, they missed their shot, the rebound was thrown out to me, I ran down, got to the three-point line, two people in my face, I sunk it.

“That left us down by one at this point with about five seconds left.

“Even though my teammate missed his shot and we lost, it’s still one of my favourite memories in basketball.

“Apart from that game, meeting NBA skills coach in Brisbane this year at a skills session is a highlight of my basketballing career.”

Caldwell has lived by the advice that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

‘‘The biggest influence on me is probably people that say you can’t do something or tell you you’re  no good at something,” he said.

“Being able to compete at a high level has also influenced me a lot, as it drives me to want to keep improving.

“Hopefully, this next step in my journey can lead me to one day play basketball as a living.”