Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 11, 1995 TAG: 9507110071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES C. BLACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Cameron Dollar is not the best player on the UCLA men's basketball team. Nor was he the best basketball player at Maryland's Harker Prep and St.John's high schools.
``I am an overachiever,'' Dollar said Monday to a group of about 90 youngsters at George Lynch's summer basketball camp at William Byrd High School. ``I worked hard, day-in and day-out, to improve my skills.
``Because of my hard work, I am able to play for UCLA and have a chance to make the NBA,'' said the 19-year-old from Atlanta.
Dollar, who will be a junior next season, came off the bench to replace injured starting point guard Tyus Edney and lead the Bruins to an 89-78 victory over Arkansas for the national championship this past season at the Seattle Kingdome. Dollar finished with six points and eight assists.
``Last spring, every day before workouts, [the team] would run around the track,'' Dollar said. ``Before we ran, we would huddle together and shout `Kingdome.'''
This is the fifth year Lynch, a Roanoke native, has conducted the camp. Even though he has excelled in athletics, he wants to show youngsters ``that there's more to life than being a basketball player.''
``We try to teach the kids that you just don't wake up and become a basketball player and a good student,'' said Lynch, a 24-year-old forward with the Los Angeles Lakers. ``You have to work at these things.''
Lynch met Dollar through high school coach Stu Vetter, who coached Lynch at Flint Hill Prep in Oakton and Dollar at Harker Prep in Potomac. The two have remained friends since, and Lynch asked Dollar to attend his camp when the two ran into each other at UCLA a couple of weeks ago. Besides being friends, Lynch and Dollar share a bond by playing on NCAA championship teams. Lynch was on North Carolina's national title team in 1993.
While some attendees were probably unaware of who Dollar is and were in awe because of the celebrity status attached to collegiate and professional athletics, others knew of Dollar and welcomed his presence.
``He showed us the importance of how long it took him to get where he is and how you get there - hard work,'' said 12-year-old Denee Hunter of Roanoke, who is attending the camp for the second straight year.
Though most of the campers are there to enhance their basketball skills or ``to take the other kids to the hole,'' the pupils also spend part of the day going to seminars where counselors talk about priorities and setting goals.
``A lot of these kids pick up good things because [the camp] talks about more than basketball - it addresses self-esteem and pressure,'' said camp coordinator Joe Gaither, who has known Lynch since he was 10 years old.
Dollar stressed that hard work and dedication are necessary for young people to reach the goals they set for themselves and that it takes more than skill to succeed.
by CNB