By Alesha Capone
Students from Thomas Carr College in Tarneit have been keenly following the success of the Australian basketball team in the Tokyo Olympics.
A former student of the school, Dante Exum, is competing in his first Olympics with the Boomers.
Exum, 26, was born in Melbourne to American parents.
His father, Cecil, played college basketball at the University of North Carolina and was drafted in 1984 by the Denver Nuggets.
As a teenager, Exum played in the Keilor Basketball Association.
He has played basketball in the United States since 2014 for teams including Utah Jazz, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Houston Rockets.
In 2015, Exum tore his ACL while playing for the Boomers in an international friendly against Slovenia, meaning he could not represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But in July, after being invited to play for Australia in Tokyo, Exum posted to Facebook: “It’s always been my dream to play in an Olympic Games. I told my agent straight away…I didn’t care what anyone had to say if they had any advice or anything. This is what I’m doing.”
The Boomers have so far won all their games, scoring 84 to 67 against Nigeria, 86 to 83 against Italy and 89 to 76 against Germany.
The Boomers also defeated Argentina in the quarter-finals on Tuesday night, with a score of 97-59.
The Aussie team will face the United States in a semi-final, which is scheduled for 2.15pm on Thursday, August 5.
