THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030559
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Attending one of Paul Webb's summer basketball camps requires hustle, concentration and hard work. But Webb is smart enough to entertain while he's teaching.
University of Virginia sophomore Harold Deane remembers having a ball at Webb's camps the three years he attended.
``I learned a lot from the camps, but I wanted to come back because I had fun,'' said Deane, the guest speaker at a recent Webb camp session. ``Coach Webb knows how to entertain. He knows how to get the kids going.''
Webb's most entertaining trick at his local weeklong camps comes each day just before lunch, when about 40 campers are given the chance to make foul shots for money. Make a foul shot, earn a dollar.
Webb exhorts the campers, most of them 12 or under, to scream to get his attention, and they go wild. Little do they know that he's selected who will shoot days in advance so that everyone will shoot once.
In Webb's team camp, the take is $100 for making a half-court shot. Only one player per camp shoots for $100.
``The best thing in the world for our camp is for somebody to make that shot and walk off with $100,'' Webb said. ``When that happens the kids go crazy, and each one of them wants to come back the next year to win $100.''
However, the fun and games end there. The camps, planned to the last detail, leave little time for daydreaming. They are designed as a rigorous cram session on basketball basics, which is one reason they are attractive to so many beginners.
Boys and girls - more than 25 percent of the campers are girls - are paired in a league by age. They play an average of two games per day, all scheduled in advance, with league championships held the last day of the camp.
They also attend sessions on ballhandling, defense, rebounding and rules, all taught by area high school coaches (about 14 per session, who are paid $175 apiece).
Trash-talk isn't allowed in camp, and the coaches, who double as game officials, hand out technicals for any discouraging word.
``I think that's one of the attractions to the Paul Webb camp,'' Cox High coach Kenny Edwards said. ``Parents know he's a class person and that he's going to run a class camp.
``The coaches want to work there because Paul treats them so well. He's good to the coaches.''
Webb promotes his camps year-round. In the fall he holds a series of clinics in area recreation centers with high school coaches and players. He attends dozens of high school games during the winter.
``Sometimes, I'll go to a recreation center on a Saturday afternoon and just watch,'' he said.
His biggest selling point, however, is word-of-mouth advertising.
``I heard about the camp from some of my friends,'' said Tommy Imel, 14, of Chesapeake. ``They all had a good time there, so I asked my parents if I could go.'' This is Imel's third year at the camp.
Kendall Rhodes, 11-year-old daughter of former Great Bridge football coach Tommy Rhodes, also attended for the third year in a row.
``I come back,'' she said, ``because I have fun and I learn a lot about basketball here.'' by CNB