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page 16 Saturday May 31 FREE < - W ITBYPRESS 9 %5pc>r'5 J Henry student invited> to play b'ball in U.S. Received college offer afier special summer camp By MARK REESOR Free Press Staff Writer A Henry Street High School student is heading south in August to play basketball with a California college which invited him without even seeing him play. Bernie Lee will be attending and playing for Butte Junior College in Orvifle. Lee received the offer after attracting the attention of U.S. recruiting services at a top 100 Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp in New Jersey. "I was talking to one of them and they were asking me where I wanted to go to college and Ijust said I wanted to go some place where it was warm. "They told me to caîl the coach at this college and he took me - he talked to one of my coaches at school (Henry) and after that he just took me." Lee, a &Y1 guard, says they seemed impressed after talking to him. 'I tell everybody (that) ail I want isjust an opportunity to work really hard and achieve the. best that I can; graduating from college is really important to me too." Lee became hooked on basketball about -six years ago when he ýw as in grade'eight and- now plays «five hours a day, seven days a week" during the summer. "(Now) I'm the epitome of a gym rat. I just live and breathe basketball - lift weights, run, ail that stuff, just trying to be better." Much of that practicing was done with fellow Henry student and best friend Stan Dibranos, who won a full scholarship at a U.S. college. "Both our goals were to play for a U.S. college and we both reached them. We're really happy about it." Lee and Dibranos went-to Michigan StateSasketbalI Camps together for four years in the sumn-er- "that's what got us started. We'd m eet coaches there and they'd be thinking we're really good and -couldn't believe we were from Canada. They'd try and help us out by calling coaches about us and getting us exposure... "Hopefully we'll get to play together down the line." He played for Henry this past season and, though the team didn't do so well, "I made 82 three-point shots" in the 23 or so games the team played. "I'm a shooter... I don't compete with centers or any- thing like that (and) try to make up (for my lack oif height) by working twice as hard." Lee is counting on attract- ing enough attention, to move on to the bigger schools.> "You go there for two years and you play and get a lot of exposure and then you move on to a four-year school," he explains. "The classes IPm going to take there are just like uni- HENRY heading to Fre-Press Photo by Mark Reesor HIGH grad Bernie Lee is California in August. - ý -1ý BERNIE LEE v m