Today the long-held dream became a reality, with Holmes and South Dragons teammate Joe Ingles named to the 12-man Boomers squad to tour China from next week.

For Holmes, selection to the team is just reward for the months of hard work he dedicated to this week’s try-out and development camp at the AIS.

“I think the work (Joe and I) have done with our strength and conditioning coach and with the assistant coaches has put us in good stead,” Holmes said.

“Both Joe and I got a good response from all the coaches about how fit we are and the shape we came in to camp - you always like to get a bit of credit for your hard work and it was really good to get that.

“I’ve made a huge step in the right direction with my fitness, and working on the consistency of my shot and learning the plays and getting pretty comfortable in the system will be the next step in my progression with the Boomers.”

The intensive four-day camp provided Holmes a key reminder of the commitment required to crack the international stage.

“It’s always good to touch base at these sort of camps and refresh your memory about how far you’ve got to go to get to the international level,” he said.

“I think the guys enjoyed (the camp) a lot, there are some sore bodies but it was good to be able to get in a lot of systems and play a lot of five-on-five before we go away to China on Wednesday.”

And the team has wasted no time in scoring a win, with a one-point victory over Washington State University last night.

“We all suited up and everyone played, so there was a fair bit of rotation which was nice considering it was the third day of the camp and everyone was pretty knackered,” Holmes said.

“It was a good opportunity instead of just training to actually get out and play a game together and get that team cohesion going.

“I was happy with my performance and I think any time you can pull on the green and gold for Australia I’ll throw my hand up and I think that should be the same for everyone around Australia.”

Holmes and Ingles will depart for China on Wednesday, for what is an important tour in the lead-up to the Olympic qualifying series against New Zealand in August.

The Boomers will face Italy, Croatia and the host nation across their 10-day campaign.

“It’s always good to go away with the Australian team and China’s as good a place as any I think, it doesn’t matter where we go,” Holmes said.

“There’s 12 guys going and it will be a good chance to start putting in place some of the systems we worked on this week.”

Holmes and Ingles join Ian Crosswhite (Sydney Kings), Oscar Foreman (New Zealand Breakers), Adam Gibson (Brisbane Bullets), Russell Hinder (Sydney Kings), Luke Kendall (Sydney Kings), Daniel Kickert (Livorno -Italy), Alex Loughton (Perth Wildcats), Brad Robbins (Perth Wildcats), Damian Ryan (Perth Wildcats) and Mark Worthington (Sydney Kings) in the touring side.

Australian head coach Brian Goorjian said the preparation shown by all athletes ahead of this week’s camp bode well for the upcoming tour.

“The camp was a good opportunity for guys to step up to make spots that have become available in the last few weeks,” he said.

“The focus we have had on physical preparation within the senior squad is starting to filter down and pay off as this group of guys came in physically fit.

“Without having to worry about their physical state we were able to put our offensive and defensive systems in place as soon as the camp began.

“The benefit of that was clearly evident with our win over Washington State University last night.”