The Sun City Plumbing Buccaneers face the possibility of an opening round road trip this weekend without any imports.

Delays processing their sports visas mean Americans Jamine Peterson and Robert Kampman are not yet cleared to play.

But Buccaneers director Andrew Horstman is hopeful Peterson’s paperwork will be processed in time.

Peterson had to undergo a chest X-ray as part of his application for a visa because he played in Asia last year.

“There is a three-step process we have to go through and we are just waiting for Greedy’s (Peterson) chest X-ray results to be uploaded to their data base,” Horstman said.

“Then Basketball Australia can clear him and we are hopeful he will play this weekend.”

Peterson arrived in Geraldton in February. Kampman, who had coaching commitments until the end of February, is yet to depart from the United States and cannot travel until his sports visa is approved.

The Buccs lodged his application with the Australian embassy in Washington DC late last week.

Horstman said it was unlikely the 2012 SBL leading scorer would play this weekend.

“It is usually a 10-day process with overseas visas but anything can happen and having him cleared before this weekend’s games would be the best case scenario,” he said.

“The process is a little frustrating but we can appreciate it. As a board we can just sit down and work out a way to better do it next year. We may look at lodging visas overseas with the 10-day turn around rather than the six weeks it takes here.” The Buccs open their season on Saturday night against South West Slammers and then play Mandurah Magic on Sunday.

Article by Taylor Courtland (Gerladton Guardian)