Ex-ODU coach keeps instructing, kids still listening

VIRGINIA BEACH

Paul Webb can still demonstrate the proper way to throw a catchable chest pass, box out under the boards or align your elbow to shoot a jump shot.

After more than 40 years of running basketball camps, he's also learned some other useful skills, such as how to handle a fast-breaking group of campers eager to get into the cafeteria for lunch.

"Cheese is on this side, pepperoni on this side," Webb said, as he stopped a group of grade-school-aged kids at the cafeteria door. "After you get your pizza, go to the little table and get your drink and dessert."

With that, he released them. After the kids and coaches were seated and eating, he grabbed a tray himself, the last one to sit.

It was Monday afternoon at Lynnhaven Middle School, the first day of Webb's 45th annual camp. Webb, the former ODU men's basketball coach, turns 80 next week. He held his first camp in 1965 at Randolph-Macon College, with former Richmond coach Lewis Mills. They had 36 campers, all boys.

This summer, Webb and his son Eddie and their staff of coaches will instruct between 1,400 and 1,600 campers, roughly divided among five week-long day camps and two high school team camps. Some of the campers will be children, even grandchildren, of former campers.

Webb's own grandchildren have attended and worked at the camp. This week, for the first time, he even has great-grandchildren who are attending.

Four generations. It's another milestone for Webb, who had no grand designs when he began 44 years ago.

"There were no camps in the Richmond area," he said.

Nor many camps anywhere else. The famous Five Star camp would not start until 1966. Webb's idea was simple: teach the fundamentals of basketball in a fun environment.

All these years later, the fundamentals of basketball haven't changed, but the camp business has. At the elite level, camps are one-stop recruiting shops for college coaches and opportunities for top players to be seen and improve their rankings. No longer just an off-season, summer has become a season in itself, fueled by the growth of AAU ball and high school leagues.

Webb's approach, meanwhile, has stayed much the same.

"What we teach the kids hasn't changed," he said. "We stress basic fundamentals, basic skills and having a good time."

Webb's camp had grown to about 600 campers when he came to Old Dominion from Randolph-Macon in 1975. He started a team camp in 1978. After retiring from ODU in 1985, he thought interest might wane. Instead, it's grown.

Leaving ODU allowed Webb to bring the camps to the kids, he said. He now holds sessions in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. His team camps are moving this year from VCU to Randolph-Macon.

One thing won't change: As he's done every night since 1978 at his team camps, Webb will stay in the dorms with the players.

Webb clearly still gets a charge being around the campers. Formerly a fatherly figure, he's now a grandfatherly one. Each morning, he gives a pep talk and demonstrates a skill.

On Tuesday morning, it was layups. The campers howled when he missed one. Webb joked to Jeff Sims, one of his coaches, that he needed to practice.

"He's an excellent teacher. The kids love him because he gives them that fatherly figure in a very comfortable environment," Sims said. "He's still got that coach's edge. He's really the only legendary guy around still doing what he's doing."

The heart of the camp is the individual skill stations. Campers cycle through 21 of them in a week, learning shooting, passing, dribbling and defensive skills. Among the players to pass through are Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Ralph Sampson and Grant Hill.

For many kids, the daily highlight is the guest speaker. That part of the day is often the best illustration of how things have changed since 1965. For example, take Monday's speaker, former Maury High and Hampton University star David Johnson.

Johnson began by demonstrating some ball-handling drills. He also showed how to protect the ball around the basket.

Then the 6-foot-6 Johnson began entertaining the kids with some soaring dunks. He bounced the ball off the wall, caught it and slammed. He jumped over several kids and flushed the ball, leaving the backboard shaking.

Nothing 1965 about it. After Johnson finished, Webb took the floor again, spoke to the campers about working hard and sent them to their stations.

Back to fundamentals, just as he's been teaching for 45 summers.

Ed Miller, (757) 446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com