Lindee Is Leaving a Legacy : Senior Helps Give Loara Tennis Boost

Gary Cleaveland, Loara High boys’ tennis coach, couldn’t name a stadium or a street after his star player, Cameran Lindee. But he felt obligated to thank Lindee for resurrecting his program.

So Cleaveland did the next best thing: He renamed Court 1 at Loara’s tennis facility “Lindee Court.”

Lindee was honored but not surprised.

“He told me to get something from his wife’s car,” Lindee said. “That’s when I saw the sign in the car. I said, ‘Coach, what’s that sign?’ He just turned all red in the face.”

Later that week, Court 1 officially was renamed Lindee Court.

“It was a nice gesture,” Lindee said. “It’s like when they put your jersey up in a basketball arena. They’re not going to get my racket to put there, though.”

No, Lindee will be taking that with him next fall to UC Irvine, where he will play for Coach Steve Clark on a partial scholarship.

Cleaveland will be sorry to see Lindee go. In four years, Lindee compiled a regular-season dual-match record of 223-2 and helped lead Loara to four successful seasons.

The year before Lindee arrived, Loara’s record was 1-18. During the Lindee era, the Saxons went 9-9, 18-2, 16-4, and 17-3 this season. Loara defeated West Torrance Friday in the wild-card round of the Division II Southern Section team playoffs.

For the third year in a row, Lindee won the Empire League singles title, beating archrival Mike Burgess of Esperanza at the league tournament, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, in an emotional match that ended with both players shouting at each other.

Despite his triumphs in high school tennis, Lindee has a few regrets. He would love to have given Loara its first league title since 1969.

But Loara lost to Esperanza, 11-7, in its final regular-season match and finished a match behind Los Alamitos (11-3, 9-1) in the Empire League standings. In the final regular-season match, Lindee was upset by Burgess, 6-2, on newly named Lindee Court.

Lindee and the team had dedicated the finale to Cleaveland, who did not attend because of his mother’s death.

“I was thinking to myself during the match, ‘I’ve worked four years to do this and I’m going to blow it all in one match,’ ” Lindee said. “It was just one of those days where Mike Burgess came out and beat me. It was ugly.”

During the week before the match, Lindee essentially took over as coach.

“He ran our practices and everything,” Cleaveland said. “But he’s basically been my on-court coach for four years anyway.”

Lindee said he might have spent too much time coaching.

“I tried to get the guys mentally focused,” he said. “Maybe I should have spent more time trying to get myself focused.”

Lindee was focused and prepared for last month’s Ojai tennis tournament. He was second-seeded and had a chance to win the boys’ interscholastic division.

But because neither Cleaveland nor any Anaheim district official accompanied Lindee to Ojai, he could not play.

“It would have been nice to play,” he said. “That’s a really nice tournament.”

Cleaveland said he would have liked to have been there, but the district’s financial problems made the trip unfeasible.

“I’ll take responsibility for it,” Cleaveland said. “I would have given my eye teeth to go up there. If Cameran’s scholarship had been resting on it, we probably would have fought more for it.”

But Clark had already decided he wanted Lindee at UCI.

“He has a solid base to work from,” Clark said. “He has good returns and a solid serve and volley game. I see him continuing to expand his game.”

But Cleaveland says he hopes Lindee never loses the emotional part of his game. Even though his on-court outbursts are sometimes criticized by opponents, Cleaveland says they help define Lindee.

“He’s very vocal,” Cleaveland said. “It’s never mean, but it’s sort of like with (John) McEnroe and (Jimmy) Connors. That’s how he gets himself going. I think he has to be that type of player.”

Early in the Burgess match at the league tournament, Cleaveland said Lindee was holding his emotions inside because of the pro-Burgess crowd.

“He was mumbling and not letting anything out,” Cleaveland said. “I told him, ‘Don’t worry what they think. You talk to yourself. That’s what gets you pumped up.’ When he’s not doing it, I get worried.”

Said Lindee: “If I don’t focus, I start talking to myself. I need someone to talk to, so I start talking to myself. I yell, I scream. I have fun out there.”

The sign at Loara’s tennis courts confirms that Lindee and Cleaveland have had their share of fun over the last four years.