The High Schools / Vince Kowalick : Entire Bell-Jeff Team Went Down but Greg Dunn Took Hardest Fall

Greg Dunn, walking, talking, awake and feeling fine Saturday morning, thanked his lucky stars.

“I remember everything now,” Dunn said.

Friday night, Dunn was seeing stars after his head was double-dribbled across the floor of the Harvard High gym.

Dunn, a senior point guard for Bell-Jeff, was knocked unconscious late in the fourth quarter of the Guards’ disappointing 78-71 San Fernando Valley League loss to Harvard.

Scrambling for a loose ball with 39 seconds to play, Dunn knocked heads with Harvard’s Rick Osterloh. Both went tumbling into the scorer’s table at midcourt, where Dunn received a second blow to the head.

“The last thing I remember,” Dunn said, “was the table’s metal support coming at me. Then there was like a flash and everything went dark.

“Nothing like that ever happened to me. I was really scared.”

So, too, was Dunn’s father, Joe, who is also the Bell-Jeff coach.

“When he’s lying there motionless, it’s tough,” the coach said. “First thing you’re thinking is, ‘Is he all right?’

“It was very scary. They knocked all the plugs out of the floor and knocked the power right out of the scoreboard.”

Ten anxious minutes later, Dunn, who scored a game-high 26 points--his second-highest output of the season--awoke to find himself strapped to a stretcher with two paramedics scrutinizing his noggin. Moments later, he again lapsed into unconsciousness.

Dunn awoke the second time at Medical Center of North Hollywood, where he was given a CAT scan and told he had a concussion. He was released at 1 a.m., but it was 4 o’clock before Dunn allowed himself to sleep.

“I was afraid to sleep,” he said. “They told everyone not to let me sleep more than three hours.”

Dunn will be examined again Monday. Other than a “knot on the back of his head,” Harvard Coach Greg Hilliard said, Osterloh was unhurt.

Add floored: Interestingly, Dunn noted, the floor of the Harvard gym is not hardwood but has a rubber surface.

“I guess I’m lucky,” Dunn said. “But I think I was knocked out before I hit the floor.”

Hilliard expressed relief Saturday when told of Dunn’s recovery. But an ode to the rubber floor was the last thing Hilliard wanted to hear.

“It’s a pain in the butt. I hate the thing,” Hilliard said. “We’re in the process of doing some fund raising to get a real wood floor built for next year. If we could just get enough people saying some bad things about it in the newspaper . . .”

Hilliard said that all the supposed advantages of the floor--easier cleaning, a softer surface and durability--do not ring true.

“All the projected advantages just didn’t work out, as we’ve found out,” Hilliard said. “Anyone who walks on it in high heels leaves an indentation on it. What we need is a real floor.”

Makeup call: Things like technical fouls stick in Taft Coach Jim Woodard’s craw. Woodard, in fact, remembers each of his four career technicals like episodes of food poisoning.

Woodard, in his eighth varsity season, was force-fed No. 4 Friday night when he protested a fourth-quarter call in the Toreadors’ 68-56 North Valley League loss to Granada Hills.

Woodard also had protested because the official, David Puathasnanon, is the father of Sam Puathasnanon, who played at Granada Hills in 1984-86.

Saturday morning, however, Woodard was apologetic.

“I deserved the technical,” he said. “I was complaining. He called a good game and I’m not questioning his integrity at all.”

Woodard, who also belittled the play of Highlander center Alvin Brown, called Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson to apologize.

“I apologized to him and I told him to apologize to Alvin for me,” Woodard said. “Granada Hills beat us because they beat us. I don’t like whiners. And I regret that I came across as one.”

Add Taft: Sophomore point guard Brandon Bryce made his Taft debut Friday after transferring from Crespi on Thursday. Bryce, who played only a few minutes, did not score.

“I never saw Brandon Bryce until he transferred into our school on Thursday,” Woodard was quick to point out. “This is not someone we went out and got.”

Clark can’t wait: “A lot of people think it’s been a long season for me,” Saugus basketball Coach John Clark said.

Well, wasn’t it, John? The Centurions finished 2-20 and last in the Golden League (1-9). Although Saugus closed with a last-second, 56-55, win over rival Canyon on Friday night, the team posted its worst record in Clark’s six years.

But Clark is taking everything in stride.

“I just feel like I’m paying some dues. We’ll get our time,” Clark said. “I told the kids, ‘What goes around comes around.’ ”

How true. Just two years ago, Clark led Saugus to the Southern Section 3-A Division championship after the team entered the playoffs as a wild-card team.

This season, the Centurions’ nucleus was composed of four sophomores and a junior. If he had a team of five bad seniors, Clark said, then there might have been cause for concern. But, said Clark, “I’ve got five good kids coming back and a dynamite freshman team, so I’m OK.”

The freshman team was 17-3.

Net gain: After a 10-month search, Westlake has found a coach for its boys’ tennis team. Lowell Henderson will replace Jaime Barajas, who guided the Warriors to the Southern Section 4-A title match in his only season.

Westlake Athletic Director Bob Fisher said that the wait was worthwhile because he found a capable replacement in Henderson.

“You don’t find a whole lot of walk-on coaches with high school coaching experience,” he said. “The kids seem to be responding to him real well.”