Newspaper Page Text
12
March 30, 1995
Ribeiro back in Long Beach for
Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race
TORRANCE, Calif.
The winner oflast year’s Toyota
Pro/Celebrity Race will return to
the streets of Long Beach, Sat.
April 8, but this time drivingas a
“professional.” Alfonso Ribeiro,
star of NBC-TV's Fresh Prince of
Bel Air, will join a full slate of
celebrities and professionals in
the 1995 event.
Celebrity and professional
drivers compete annually in the
10-lap event which is part of the
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Indy car weekend. Toyota do
nates $2,000 on behalf of each
participant, to “Racing for Kids,”
a national fund-raising program
for children’s hospitals across the
country.
Ribeiro is not only a talented
actor and race car driver, but he
is also an accomplished singer.
The 24-year-old actor records for
Island Records and has released
several singles, including “Dance
Baby,” “Not Too Young” and
“Sneak Away With Me.”
The Northwest Bronx native
showed talents in singing, danc
ing and acting at a very young
age. By the time he was eight, he
appeared in the PBS series “Oye
Willie,” about Spanish-speaking
youngsters growing up in New
York’s barrio.
But it was his role on Broad
way in the Tony Award-winning
musical Tap Dance Kid, that cat
apulted him to stardom. That
performance led to Ribeiro’s ap
pearance dancing with Michael
Thomson has winning method
By Kim Lewis
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
Joya Collier. Vonteego
Cummings. Derrick Allen. These
are just a few of the CSRA’s best
local basketball players but
where did they come from? How
were they discovered? Did their
high-school coach go out and seek
them or did they just get lucky
because of high school zoning
lines?
The CSRA has an abundance
of middle- and high-school tal
ent that has developed through
summer leagues and endless
hours at the playground during
summer vacation. But how do
high-school coaches ensure qual
ity players for their varsity pro
grams?
This is a question that every
one is asking. How do coaches
get quality players in order to
repeat as state champions year
after year like the Hart Co. girls’
program that won 4 straight bas
ketball championships? Isit luck
orisit a bit of skillful recruiting?
Jazz Quiz Answers
1. Trumpet
2. Piano
3.“81ue Flame” later “Woodchop
pers’ Ball”
4. “East St. Louis Toodle-00” lat
er “Take the ‘A’ Train”
5. Chicago, 111.
6. John Hammond
7. Billie Holiday
8. John Hammond
9. was killed in an automobile
accident in early 1939
10. Cab Calloway
11. Harlem, NY
12. Spring of 1944
13. Nat ‘King’ Cole
14. Jazz saxophonist
15. John Lewis
16. Andre Previn about Dizzy
Gillespie
17. Members of the Georgia Afro-
American All State Big Band
18. John Bradley
19. Latice Washington
20. Saxophonist, vocalist, and
graduates of Kentucky State
Check the
Artbeat
for upcoming
entertainment 1n
Augusta
AUGUSTA FOCUS
. -
N o ————
— g
_ e
. / '
2 haas $
--S N —
P - > %
g. g -- 4 ~ .e g
-...’.:! - 1A -\" ':..._ "'&"
= ~ Bl R
e' :t W ~ L =; -
)ev s > ¥
\s 2 y “
| L i ™ ié . W
e= @ o
i .{ i ; . N Ay ,& v' N, e
F'= # i
!"'*7- i i~ :, \\ | A
‘ : e . )
| ’_’ ,«, ; e
h | ".‘ £< o My e ) J
."' ,I T>“ F \\s .3‘ ;& \V'J"‘: ,’»* ‘- 4’ gLI
OATE U T Y =
= W u
| .
- o a
i 5
vy ;g
Ll . "
i " \
F .
D ; "'\
. ] (S
Alfonso Ribeiro, star of NBC-TV’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air, will join
a full slate of celebrities and professionals in the 1995 event.
Jackson in the famous Pepsi com
mercial.
Shortly thereafter, Ribeiro was
cast opposite Rick Schroder in
Any coach would feel lucky to
head the program at Thomson
High School. Coach Thomas has
a hotbed of young talent and op
erates a sort of “farm system”
that emphasizes the develop
ment of younger players while
trying to turn out tke next
Vonteego Cummings and
Antrone Lee. Youths not old
enough to be in middle school
spend endless days practicing to
one day be a member of the pies
tigious Thomson basketball
team.
At Thomson, basketball is like
religion. Youngsters eat, sleep,
and breath basketball. The J-V
program is rigid and based on
concentration and discipline. It
isdiscipline that turns out young,
talented men such as Vonteego
and Antrone.
At Laney, Coach Bonner uses
astep process to get quality play
ers into his program. “Our kids
usually enter into our system in
the 9th grade. In most cases, we
like our kids to play B-team first
and gradually move up in the
Al D\
S G| i s | asaa 7
== e ISR Sm= S== = QO‘A,,.f/,
E..——..—:E:——:.—:-—-:—::———:_—_- N
= = N AEGS
S &
.- V“"’—f’* ;:&_\
MARCH W 5’
17 Fri Atlanta Knights hockey 7:30
SPORTS RADIO 1480 AM s B Milwafl(e; =
| un icago at Indiana :
WRDW “THE FAN’ 21 Tue Homets at New York 7:25
22 Wed Heat at Atlanta 7:30
23 Thu Hornets at Orlando 7:55
LIVE 24 Fri Hawks at Cleveland 7:30
25 Sat Bulls at Atlanta 7:30
26 Sun Golden State at Ordando 1:00
: 30 Thu Hawks at Golden State 7:40
NBA and HOCkey Action 31 Fri Atlanta Knights hockey 7:30
vs. Houston
Sports Focus
the NBC series Silver Spoons,
which aired for three years. Dur
ing his teens, the young star con
centrated on his singing career
system. On varsity, we usually
let our seniors play most of the
time and our juniors come offthe
bench.”
At Laney, Coach Bonner’s goal
is to establish the best blend of
players, not necessarily a cham
pionship team. “Once a kid is in
our program, he usually doesn’t
get cut for a person with greater
talent. It just isn’t fair to the kid
or what we are trying to pro
mote.
“Finding kids is usually not a
problem for us. We find a lot of
players by word of mouth or just
by knowing a good kid is in an
area middle school.” After sea
son, Bonner’s players take their
skills to the area gyms to fine
tune their skills for the next sea
son.
Josey’s Coach Quentin Motley
approaches getting quality play
ers in a different way. “I go to
middle-school games and I scout
out recreational leagues also. In
this county, it’s hard scouting
out potential players because
even though they go to middle
and began college at Cal State,
Los Angeles, as a theatre arts
major. He put his education on
hold when he was offered the
role of Carlton Banks, the bright,
conservative cousin of star Wil
Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
In his first year on the Long
Beach course in 1994, Ribeiro
took to racing like he had sing
ing, dancing and acting. He not
only beat his fellow celebrities by
more than seven seconds, but
the professional race drivers as
well, averaging 65.607 miles per
hour around the street course.
Ribeiro is among the 16 driv
ers who have their eyes set on
the checkered flag in identically
prepared Toyota Celica GT
liftbacks. Competing against
Ribeiro will be Jason Priestly
(Beverly Hills 90210), Grant
Show (Melrose Place), Matt Le
Blanc (Friends), Anthony
Edwards (ER), Cameron Diaz
(The Mask), Glenn Quinn
(Roseanne) and Helene Udy (Dr.
Quinn Medicine Woman). They
will join the more than 150 celeb
rity drivers who have raced in
the streets of Long Beach over
the past two decades. The partic
ipants will compete on the same
1.59-mile course that is used the
following day for the Toyota
Grand Prix of Long Beach Indy
car event.
You may receive tickets at all
California Ticket Master loca
tions or by calling (310)436-9953.
school in your district, they may
not go to your high school be
cause some zoning districts over
lap.”
Once coach Motley knows a
player is coming to his program,
he. acts more like a counselor.
“We like to tell the player about
our program as well as our ex
pectations of him. Here at Josey,
we stress a year round workout
with weights, running, and aca
demics. When they actually get
in the varsity program, then we
concentrate on specifics like foot
work and hand and eye coordi
nation.”
Unlike in Thomson’s program,
recruiting in Richmond Co. is
harder because there are many
more high schools in the county.
Players can pick their high school
the way they pick their college.
But most coaches are echoing
the same thing: summer leagues
aretheplacetofindtalent. “There
are a lot of kids that are good but
never thought of trying out for
the high school teams, says Coach
Bonner.
Arkansas represents legacy of
“Brotherball” hoop success
By Timmy Cox
Special to AUGUSTA FOCUS
As a longtime hoop fan, I've
seen some of the best in the past
30 years, having witnessed the
game’s transition to the colorful
sport it is today. Keep in mind
that Arkansas represents a suc
cessful style of play simply called
“Brotherball.”
The defending NCAA champs
are legacy to a style first intro
duced to magjor collegiate ranks in
1973. That’s when little-heralded
Florida State, Coached by Hugh
Durham and led by sharp-shoot
ing guard Ron King, almost upset
a legendary UCLA squad, led by
Bill Walton and Keith “Silk” Wilks.
Thesignificance of the contest was
that Fla. State was reportedly the
first all-black team from a major
institution to nearly become
NCAA national champs.
During that same period, the
Marquette Warriors and theircon
temporary leader AlMcGuire kept
pace by heavily recruiting fresh
talent, including the likes of Dean
“The Dream” Memminger, Jim
Chones, Bo Ellis, Pittsburgh’s
Maurice Lucas. And hey, they wore
long, droopy shirts back then.
The trend would persist in 1975
when University of San Francisco
fielded a superb, freshman-domi
nated crew led by center Bill
Cartwright, Chubby Cox, James
Hardy and Winford Boynes. The
Dons lost in the early rounds of
the NCAAs, but man, could they
play! By the late "70s/early 'Bos,
the inner-city talents of Chicago
moved on to Depaul University.
Who could forget the *79 team of
Mark Aguire, Skip Dillard, Terry
Cummings and Clyde Bradshaw?
All they would do is spend the
entire regular season undefeated,
No. 1-ranked, and lose in the
NCAA first round. A disappoint
ing ending. But still, their
National youth sports program
returns to Paine College
ThePaineCollegeNational Youth
Sports Program (NYSP), a summer
recreational and educational pro
gram for children 10to 16 years old,
is currently accepting applications.
The program will be held weekdays,
June 19 - July 21. The application
deadline is April 19.
NYSP, sponsored by National
Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA), provides an instructional
program foraminimum of 3 lifetime
sports, which includes swimming,
lifesaving and/or water safety tech
niques. The educational component
of the program offers a minimum of
15 hours on nutrition, personal
health, career opportunities, job re
sponsibilities, highereducation,and
other topics. Another 7.5 hours of
information on alcohol and other
“Brotherball” game is unforgetta
ble.
In the 'Bos, the mantle was car
ried by Coach Denny Crum and
the Louisville Cardinals. Crum
and ace recruiter Wade Houston
simply plucked top high school
talent, including Darrell Griffith
and his “Doctors of Dunk,” featur
ing Rodney and “Scooter” McCray,
and later Milt Wagner, Billy Th
ompson and Pervis “Never Ner
vous” Ellison. Crum’s squads
would prove that “Brotherball”
could win national championships
('Bl, 'B6).
Coach John Thompson'’s classic
Georgetown teams led by Patrick
Ewing, Sleepy Floyd, David
Wingate and Reggie Williams,
represented a diversion from a
familiar “Brotherball” approach._
Unlike the former teams, Thomp
son’s victory march relied on hard
nosed defense and half-court slow
down and multiple reserves to
physically wear the opponent.
Though different from the run
and-shoot, slick-dribbling, almost-
Globetrotteresque appeal of its
predecessors, Georgetown was
still quite successful, and won the
title in 'B4.
Otherteams deserving mention
are Houston’s phenomenal “Phi
SlammaJamma” with Clyde“The .
Glide” Drexler and Hakeem
Olajuon; Oklahoma University’s
sharp-shootersled by Stacey King,
Harvey Grant and Mookie Blalock;
and, of course, the UNLV Runnin’
Rebels, with Larry Johnson and
Stacy Augmon. Though before my
time, wemustinclude Texas West
ern University (now UTEP). They
were the first “race horse-style”
team to win the NCALA title in
the early '6os.
At any rate, it’s nice to note that
a style once considered “unorga
nized” has been and continues to_
be successful.
Go Razorbacks!
drug prevention is mandated by the
NYSP guidelines.
ThePaineprogramissupplement
ed by support from the City of Au
gusta and Richmond County. Last
year, over 575 children registered in
Augusta and the program’s average
daily attendance was 480 children.
A minimum of 90 percent of the
participants must meet the U.S. De
partment of Health and Human
Services’ guidelines for parental in
come or reside in a “target area” as
identified by the CSRA Economic
Opportunity Authority.
Applications are available at the
Randall A. Carter Gymnasium on
Druid Park Avenue. For additional
information, please call the Paine
College NYSP Office at (706) 821-
8352 or (706) 821-8227.