Getting Centered : Once Apathetic, Scott Dwinell Is Now Enjoying Life as a Student-Athlete at Saddleback

When Scott Dwinell, starting center on the Saddleback College basketball team, talks about his extracurricular activities in high school, he doesn’t mean athletics.

“During high school I just wasn’t into sports,” Dwinell said. “I was into other things, like parties.”

Dwinell, 6-feet 9-inches, didn’t even play basketball in high school; he took up the game a year after graduating in 1983.

But the road from apathetic high school student to basketball player wasn’t easy.

During high school, Dwinell was more interested in having a good time than going to class. He rarely did homework, and he ended up transferring from El Toro High School to Silverado High, a continuation school, during his senior year because of poor grades.

He graduated from Silverado in 1983.

Dwinell spent most of the next year working and still going to parties.

Finally one day, he was working in the garden department at K mart and Dwinell realized that he wanted more out of life.

“One day I just said to myself, ‘This is crazy,’ ” Dwinell said. “I knew I was going to have to do something. I was thinking about joining the Coast Guard, but I decided to give basketball a chance first.”

Basketball was something Dwinell had resisted most of his life.

He liked soccer and played in American Youth Soccer Organization leagues. But when Dwinell got to high school, he didn’t get along with the freshman coach at El Toro and hasn’t played since.

Because he was always the tallest in his class, everyone assumed he played basketball.

“I always hated that question, ‘Do you play basketball?’ ” Dwinell said. “I was tall and people just assumed I played. I just got so sick of the question that I decided I’d better give basketball a try.”

He started playing pickup games at a gym near his home in El Toro in the spring of 1984. That fall, he enrolled at Saddleback as a part-time student and began playing with Gaucho team members in a recreation class.

“I saw him in a recreation league and he told me he thought he could be a player,” said Bill Brummel, Saddleback basketball coach. “I told him to come on out, and it has all worked out pretty well since.”

Dwinell spent the 1984-85 season working out with the team.

He made the team last season but came down with mononucleosis and couldn’t play more than two minutes a game for the first month of the season.

“After I got sick, they (the coaching staff) wanted me to redshirt,” Dwinell said. “But I didn’t want to. I’ve waited enough. I wanted to get on with my life.”

Dwinell was in the starting lineup by the time the Gauchos reached the South Coast Conference season in the middle of January.

His illness slowed his development; he ended up averaging 3.5 points and 2 rebounds a game as a freshman.

In the off-season, he went to work in the weight room, which he admits is not one of his favorite places. But he also knows the value of the added strength. He gained 15 pounds and now weighs 200.

“At first it was a joke,” he said. “There were football players in there who could bench press half the gym and I was doing the bar.”

This season, Dwinell is feeling more at home on the court and is becoming more a part of the Gaucho team, which is 12-3 and on a nine-game winning streak that includes winning the Santa Barbara and Riverside tournaments.

Dwinell is averaging 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds and scored a career-high 12 points against Grossmont in the Santa Barbara Tournament.

Cal Poly Pomona is starting to show an interest in him, Brummel said.

“He’s starting to become more a part of the offense, but that’s come through hard work,” Brummel said. “He’s really started to solidify his life, and he has the direction and the dedication he needs to go on and be successful.”

His development on the court has followed him into the classroom. Dwinell is carrying a full load and is easily passing all his courses.

“I’m not really that disappointed that I didn’t play basketball in high school,” Dwinell said. “I’ve done everything already. I’ve got to all the parties and I’ve done all that sort of stuff.

“I know so many people who are just getting in trouble now like I did when I was in high school. I’m getting a second chance at a community college and I know this time I’ll make it.”