THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030548
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
He's awake before 7 a.m. and by 8 he's already at work at Great Bridge High School, where he will spend the day tutoring 175 young basketball players. He doesn't return home until nearly dark, and then spends the evening poring over the next day's schedule.
That's not the lifestyle most would choose for their retirement, but when Paul Webb stepped down as basketball coach at Old Dominion, playing shuffleboard wasn't in his plans.
He's spent his ``golden years'' building a series of summer basketball camps that are among the most popular in the state. This is the third summer in a row in which Webb's five camps - four in South Hampton Roads and one in Richmond - have sold out.
More than 800 boys and girls, most of them 12 and under, attend one of Webb's weeklong camps at Great Bridge, Western Branch and Cape Henry Collegiate. Each pays $140 for eight hours per day of basketball drills and lectures.
The camp in Richmond draws 85 high school and junior high teams to Virginia Commonwealth University. Each of the 650 players pays $220 apiece to participate in one of the nation's largest team camps.
``His camps are No. 1 in the area, no question,'' said Maury coach Jack Baker, who started his own one-week camp a few years ago and is only slowly approaching the numbers posted by Webb.
Webb not only draws campers, he also attracts big bucks.
The five Paul Webb Converse All-Star camps generate estimated revenue of $250,000, based on the fees paid by players. Converse and local soft-drink and fast-food companies also provide what Webb calls some support for the camps.
Webb politely declines to say how much he clears, but he notes that he pays hefty bills. For the team camp, for example, he hires 120 people, rents five gymnasiums and 330 dormitory rooms, and purchases meals, basketballs and T-shirts for all of the campers.
But it's safe to say that Webb is doing well financially, probably better than he did at ODU.
Thanks to the camps, Webb is financially secure.
``The camps are not something I have to do from a financial standpoint,'' he said. ``I've had retirement pay (from ODU and Randolph-Macon) and some investments I made to live on since I left Old Dominion. With the camps, the last few years I haven't had to touch any of the investments.
``We (Webb and his wife, Charlotte) live comfortably. We each buy a bag of popcorn at the movies rather than split one.
``But money isn't the primary reason I started the camps. I had no idea they would grow like they have. I just enjoy doing them. I always have.''
Webb broke into the camp business in 1965 when he was the coach at Randolph-Macon. He and Lewis Mills, then coaching at the University of Richmond, started with one camp that summer. The cost was $35 per camper; 36 kids showed up.
From that modest beginning he began the Randolph-Macon basketball camp, which blossomed into the largest college camp in the Richmond area. Webb used his connections to attract Wes Unseld a month after Unseld was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player. Moses Malone went from being a camper one year to a speaker the next when he signed out of Petersburg High School - Webb's alma mater - with the Utah Stars of the old ABA.
Webb began the state's first team camp shortly after he came to ODU in 1975. By the time he left, more than 60 teams were making the trek to ODU's campus each summer. ODU team camp alumni include Ralph Sampson, J.R. Reid, Alonzo Mourning and Bryant Stith.
Webb's camps had grown to three weeks and were the best-attended in the area when he stepped down as ODU's coach in 1985.
``A lot of coaches at high-profile schools envied the success of Paul's camps at Old Dominion,'' said former Virginia coach Terry Holland.
After stepping down as coach, Webb stayed on as an assistant athletic director for four years to help raise funds. And ODU athletic director Jim Jarrett allowed Webb to keep his hand in summer camps.
``They allowed me to have a camp as long as I didn't have one locally to compete with the Old Dominion camps,'' Webb said.
Webb held a one-week team camp at Liberty University that first year. The next year, he moved the camp to VCU at the behest of Mike Pollio, a former assistant to Webb at ODU who was then the VCU coach, and assistant coach Eddie Webb, his son.
``I felt that as time passed, fewer people would know who I was and that the team camp wouldn't grow,'' Webb said. ``I wanted to maintain about 24 teams.''
The first camp at VCU drew about 30 teams. Now it's at the maximum capacity of 85, given the gym and dormitory space available at VCU. The Virginia High School League also uses the Webb camp to train 120 new officials each summer.
Webb says he began his camps in South Hampton Roads because he felt suburban kids had limited camp choices. ODU had its camps, as did a number of Norfolk private schools, but there were slim pickings for kids in the suburbs.
Webb began with three camps in 1991. A year later, he added a second camp at Cape Henry. By 1992, his four area camps were sold out.
Why have Webb's camps been so successful? Area high school coaches say Webb's name and reputation for organization and integrity are a big plus. But just as important initially were the connections he developed in 34 years of coaching, connections that brought some of the ACC's biggest stars to Hampton Roads.
Duke's Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill, North Carolina's Eric Montross and George Lynch and Virginia's Stith and John Crotty have all lectured at Webb's camps.
Last year the NCAA reduced the fees players can receive speaking at summer camps, and that has reduced the number of stars at the Webb camps. But even without the big names, the kids keep coming.
``The Laettners and Hurleys helped pull kids into the camp,'' Western Branch coach Mike Donavan coach said. ``But once the camp got going, it has thrived without the big names. The kids enjoy themselves and word has spread.''
Also, Webb's timing was impeccable, said Kempsville coach Vernon King.
``He began his camps when there weren't a lot of them in Virginia Beach or Chesapeake,'' he said. ``There was a need for quality camps, and he filled the void.''
ODU's camps, meanwhile, faltered after Webb departed. The four ODU men's and women's basketball camps will draw approximately 375 this summer, less than half the draw of Webb's four local camps.
Jarrett acknowledges that Webb's camps may have grown partly at ODU's expense, but says that's to Webb's credit.
``Paul is one of the best I know at developing summer camps,'' Jarrett said. ``We haven't yet reached the numbers we had when Paul was coach, but we're improving and we will do better.''
At present, however, Webb is the acknowledged king of summer camps in South Hampton Roads.
``As long as Paul wants to do basketball camps,'' Baker said, ``he'll be successful.'' ILLUSTRATION: PAUL AIKEN/Staff color photos
Paul Webb and camper Justin Dorsk celebrate a successful free throw,
worth $1. The fun and games are planned to the smallest detail, with
the emphasis on concentration, hustle and hard work.
Karl Kumm, a sixth-grader at G.A. Treakle Elementary, works on his
ballhandling.
Brett Larson, left, and Jason Dilday try to get Paul Webb's
attention during a foul-shooting contest.
by CNB