Loyola’s Westhead Reacts to Possible Suit

Ten days after Hank Gathers’ death, Loyola Marymount basketball Coach Paul Westhead made his first, indirect response Wednesday to an anticipated lawsuit by the Gathers family that could point a finger of liability at him.

Westhead said Wednesday: “I tried my best to do good for (Gathers). I know in my heart I did, and I’m certain Hank Gathers knows that.”

Later he added, “I would never do anything to hurt Hank Gathers.”

Bruce Fagel, the Gathers’ family lawyer, announced last week plans to file suit against the university.

At a news conference, Fagel said: “Clearly the university wanted Mr. Gathers to play and they were involved. I’m not sure if it was the coach or the trainer. . . . I want to find out who at the university intervened in making decisions pertaining to medical dosages as well as the decision to play.”

Fagel has said the suit will not be filed until Loyola has finished playing in the NCAA tournament.

Westhead, speaking after a practice for his team’s first-round game on Friday, said he remains reluctant to respond “until a more appropriate time”--when his season is over and the autopsy findings have been studied, and he has dealt with his personal feelings about Gathers’ death.

“Things I should confront I have not allowed myself to confront,” he said. “Now is not the time. It hasn’t evolved down to (lawsuits) for me. I’m still dealing with the death of someone who meant a great deal to me.”

But he added: “It’s ridiculous to think I called his doctors and said let’s cut his dosage from 200 to 100, or whatever. That’s ludicrous. Do you think they’d listen to me?”

Gathers fainted in a Dec. 9 game and was found to have an irregular heartbeat after a battery of medical tests. He returned to the lineup Dec. 30 and was clearly not himself physically for several more weeks.

“There were days it was obvious he was struggling, even before practice,” Westhead said. “There were times I think he was so frustrated--the St. Joseph’s game (Jan. 4) as an example--I felt very badly, I felt it would be almost better for him not to play. But not for the reasons obvious now. He’d been told by doctors he could return to form. (His life) was not an issue.

“It was my understanding his problem--which was never to me specifically spelled out--can be controlled by medication. Generally he was doing better.”

Before Gathers collapsed and died March 4, he had been playing well. Westhead said, “There was nothing (visibly wrong) that day or that weekend.”

Westhead seems more annoyed with Fagel’s timing than his being a potential target of accusations.

“I have not really had time to think this thing through,” he said. “To me there are more important things--the (team) and Hank Gathers. I can’t just forgo that.”