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Jeff Bolton, a former Butler High School star, speaks to a group of children at the Miracle Making Ministies Summer Basketball Camp Thursday afternoon June 11, 1998 at Butler High School. Mr. Bolton, who will play for the College of Charleston this season, spoke to the young players about staying in school and making good grades. 6/11/98 Brant Sanderlin photo SPORTS

Bolton takes spotlight at Butler youth camp

Web posted June 12, 1998

By Dwight Foxx
Staff Writer

Jeff Bolton remembers going to different basketball camps and hearing special guest speakers when he was young.

On Thursday, it was Bolton's time to do the talking. The former Butler star and The Augusta Chronicle's 1996-97 Georgia area Player of the Year spoke at the Miracle Making Ministries Inc. basketball camp at Butler High.

Current Butler players and former stars like Bolton and Carl Greene were on hand to help coach John Kucela. The weeklong camp concludes today.

``This is the first time that I've ever spoken at a camp,'' said Bolton, who redshirted this past season at the College of Charleston. ``I remember when I was small I would listen to the different people that would come to speak. I was a little nervous at first about speaking.''

Bolton scored 1,157 career points in his career at Butler and was the Most Valuable Player of last season's Georgia-Tennessee All-Star game after scoring 27 points in a 117-108 loss. Bolton, a 6-foot-4 guard, is likely to see a lot of action at point guard this season for the Cougars.

The College of Charleston will open its year in the Preseason NIT at Georgia in Athens.

Bolton said it was his decision to redshirt this past season. Bolton, who played shooting guard as a senior at Butler, says he thinks his chances of making the NBA are better at point guard. He played point guard as a junior at Butler.

``With all the guards we had, I knew I wasn't going to get that many minutes,'' Bolton said. ``It was real hard at first because I didn't feel like I was contributing to the team. I'm looking forward to this year because we should have a really good team.''

This is the initial year that Kucela has held this camp. His players and assistant coaches Bob Klofenstine and Valton Acree helped him. Augusta State men's coach Gary Tuell spoke to the campers Tuesday.

The cost of the camp was only $10 for the week as donations from local churches, led by the Rev. Robert Williams, helped to feed the children and provide T-shirts for campers.

``This was a way to reach kids who can't afford to go to camps,'' Kucela said. ``There are a lot of churches responsible for helping out with everything. We've had about 120 to 125 kids this week and that's pretty good for the first year.''