THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994 TAG: 9412140197
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 25 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, SUN SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
LAKELAND HIGH'S Sebastian Yates remembers vividly how his senior teammates looked last season when York ended the Cavaliers' season in the district basketball tournament.
``When I saw how those seniors felt, I was telling myself `I'm not going to let this happen to us,''' Yates said.
Yates, a 6-foot-4, senior forward, knew what he needed to do to improve his game for his final season.
``I went to camp,'' Yates said. ``I played in summer league and fall league and I played out at the playground a lot with older men who helped me out with things.
``I wanted to work on my defense and rebounding.
``We don't have that much height, so I need to be able go inside, at times I may not have much choice. My game has really stepped up a notch.''
In two games this season Yates has scored 50 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out five assists and had five steals.
``He is basically a complete ball player. He can do some of everything,'' Cavaliers head coach John Fuller said.
That's a far cry from the player who walked onto the court in the eighth grade.
Defense wasn't even part of Yates' vocabulary then.
``I couldn't really play basketball,'' Yates said. ``I could just shoot.''
It took several seasons for the rest of his game to come together and it really wasn't until this season that his defensive and passing abilities stood out.
``He really worked hard,'' Fuller said. ``He has improved his game tremendously. He went to track every day and ran with a weight jacket on to build his strength. He worked on ball handling. . . we sat down with each player at the end of the season. He knew what he needed to work on.''
That mission accomplished, his teammates gave him yet another job, they voted him team captain.
``I've never been a captain before,'' Yates said. ``I have to encourage everyone and keep them going in practice and make sure they don't cheat. It's kind of hard to keep everybody up and I have to show them by how I play and work.
``It is a lot of responsibility. My team will look to me to provide points in a game when we need them. I'll just do the best that I can.''
Having been on the sidelines with bad grades before, Yates has no problem stressing the importance of keeping his grade point average up.
``My grade just dropped a bit in English,'' Yates said. ``They go up and down, but it makes you work hard.
``If you want to play you've got to sacrifice and work hard. That's it.''
Anyone who saw Yates and his teammates play in summer and fall league action probably wasn't very impressed. Lakeland won only one game during the summer and went 5-5 in the fall, but that is fine with Yates.
``Everybody is expecting us to be pretty bad,'' Yates said. ``We lost a lot of people and we want everybody to think we don't know what we're doing. Then we'll surprise them.''
The goal is always the state tournament.
``We've never been to state and that's a place I'd like to go,'' Yates said.
But never far from anyone's mind is the Lakeland Christmas tournament December 27 and 28.
That will be the Cavaliers' first meeting of the season with cross-town rival and district favorite Nansemond River.
Yates isn't at all relieved that the Warriors lost 12 players from last season's state semifinal team.
``They always have something over there,'' Yates said. ``In football, field hockey, everything. It's almost like they are AAA and we are AA. But I think we might be pretty evenly matched this year.
``That's the biggest game. Whoever wins owns the bragging rights of the town and everywhere you go you see people from Nansemond River. It's best to win that game.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Sebastian Yates, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, says he improved his
game by going to camp, playing in summer and fall leagues and
competing against older men on the playground.
by CNB