WHEN Werribee’s Joshua Oswald was one of 24 selected to attend an under-19 basketball development camp at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) earlier this year, he was nothing if not surprised.

The 16-year-old then went one better and was invited back as a member of a reduced 20-man squad for a trial during the September school holidays.

This time, Oswald, who trains six times a week, was lost for words.

“I was really excited and happy to be invited back. I was pretty much speechless and didn’t know what to think or what to do. I was just really happy,” he said.

“This would probably be my top achievement in my basketball career so far.”

The camp aims to identify Australian talent in the lead-up to the 2013 FIBA under-19 World Championship.

But before that, a 10-man Australian team will be chosen after the September program to play in a week-long youth tournament in New Caledonia, which begins on 30 October.

Oswald is in the running to qualify, along with long-time Werribee team-mate Michael Luxford, who was the July nomination for the 2010/11 Don Deeble Rising Star award.

“It was good because I know him (Luxford) pretty well, so if I was ever stuck I could go to him.”

The 198cmOswald rated the June camp as a learning experience, but he is looking forward to another opportunity to showcase his ability.

“It was really good and tough and hard – something I’ve never experience before. We trained three times a day, so that was something different for me. It was a good experience, though.

“They taught different skills and plays, and things like that. They also taught us different rehab stuff.

“There were a couple of different drills which I hadn’t seen before, but most of the stuff we normally do.”

The forward, who sometimes plays the role of centre, is currently playing for Werribee’s under-18s in the Victorian Junior Basketball League competition.

Oswald, who took his first steps onto the court at the tender age of five, was a member of the Victoria Metro under-16s team that won last year’s National Junior Championships.

He was also part of Werribee’s team which won the Victorian Junior Championships in 2009.

When asked to name his strengths, Oswald said: “My rebounding and shooting.”

Playing for Australia is also on his list of goals.

If Oswald can go some way to reaching the heights of idols Michael Jordan, Dwight Howard and LeBron James, he will be donning the green and gold for many years to come.