Shannon Seebohm’s rise to the elite ranks of basketball heads international tomorrow, when the 19-year-old gun departs for France en route to the junior World Championships in July.

The AIS athlete and new-season Dragons recruit will this week begin a two-month international romp ahead of his first professional season.

But for the Paris-bound Emus, the next fortnight will prove far from a croissants and Champagne experience.

“We’re playing a series of exhibition games against the French junior team, the Lithuanian junior team, two professional French teams and maybe a few other national teams as well,” Seebohm said.

“The next fortnight will be a big part of our lead-up to the World Championships so we just want to try to get the team gelling and keep improving the things we need to improve before the Worlds start.”

Seebohm will contest the European circuit with the same12-man Emus squad to contest the under-19 World Championships in Serbia in July.

The squad, drawn mostly from the AIS, heads overseas with a strong record to its name.

“Everyone knows each other’s game and we all know what we’re good at from the AIS at so that will definitely be helpful, but there are a few guys coming in from outside the AIS as well so it will be good for us to keep getting to know them,” Seebohm said.

Just months out from his NBL debut, Seebohm is flat out on the practice court to ensure he is ready for the season ahead.

“At the moment it’s just lots of training and playing (SEABL) for the AIS to try to stay in shape and stay out of trouble with injuries,” he said.

“On a typical day we have shooting in the morning and then just before lunch we’ll do either weights or have an individual session and then it’s team practice in the afternoon.”

And as if that’s not enough, Seebohm is also hard at work off the court to earn some cash for his travels.

“I’ve just been doing a bit of part-time work on site at the AIS,” he said.

“I’m working in a place called records management where it’s a lot of storing files and putting folders together!”

But with France, Spain and Serbia on this winter’s itinerary, Seebohm’s days behind a desk now seem all but over.