CENTERPIECE

In football, size matters.

Just ask Gregg Guenther of Taft High.

When you’re closing in on 6-foot-9, weigh 260 pounds and have hands soft as feather pillows, it doesn’t matter that you’ve had only six catches in your high school career.

College coaches will line up to sign you to a letter of intent based on potential alone.

“If I was a Division I coach, I’d take him in a minute,” said Tim Lins, who coached Guenther as a junior at Crespi.

That’s about all it took for USC coaches to decide on Guenther once they laid eyes on him at their football camps for high school seniors.

“I told [USC coaches] this kid’s presence is amazing,” Lins said. “And I don’t think they believed me.”

“Then he walked by and they said, ‘Wow.’ ”

With Guenther, the Trojans get much more than just a big guy with big hands. He’s a two-sport athlete who’s smart, loves to compete, runs surprisingly well for his size and has a wonderful work ethic.

“He’s kind of a fanatic about working out,” said Gregg Sr., Guenther’s father. “He wanted to lift weights since he was 12 years old. He was always gung-ho and I was always the one who held him back.”

As a sophomore, Guenther was about 6-4 and plenty large enough to compete on Crespi’s varsity. His father, however, wouldn’t allow it.

“I just didn’t feel it was necessary,” Guenther Sr. said. “He needed to mature. His junior and senior year was enough. I spoke to several people about it, doctors especially.”

Guenther played tight end at Crespi during his junior season. But the Celts ran the wing-T and seldom passed.

Guenther, who did not have a catch as a junior, played only five games before an ankle stress fracture ended his season.

Rehabilitation of the ankle injury spilled into basketball season, forcing Guenther to miss more than half of the Celts’ games. When he did return, he played sparingly.

Playing football for Taft months later, Guenther dislocated a shoulder making a tackle in the Toreadors’ second game and missed the next four games.

“I was very disappointed because I was really looking forward to the season,” Guenther said. “But sometimes stuff happens to you and you just have to live through it.”

When he returned, he was used mostly as a defensive end and finished with only six catches for 48 yards.

But Guenther is tearing up the competition on the basketball court for Taft (12-1), which has a 12-game winning streak.

“He’s such a team player,” Coach Mark Drucker said. “He has no ego at all. He solidifies the inside game. We’ve never had that inside presence before.”

Guenther, who leads the Toreadors with averages of 17 points and 10.8 rebounds a game, has found happiness at Taft. And not just because the Toreadors are winning.

Guenther has flourished in more ways than one since transferring in September from Crespi, his father said.

“He’s really come out of his shell at Taft,” Guenther Sr. said.

For about a year, Guenther tried to convince his father to let him leave Crespi.

“I just really didn’t fit in there,” Guenther said. “It wasn’t my cup of tea. But my dad thought it was good to stay at Crespi for the academics.”

After much discussion, Guenther Sr. granted his son’s wish before his senior year. But the Guenthers quickly learned it wasn’t as easy as checking out of one school and checking into another.

Because Guenther’s mother is an assistant principal at Taft, the Guenthers were told by Taft administrators that the City Section would never grant an inter-district transfer to an athlete of her son’s stature--especially since football Coach Troy Starr previously served suspensions for recruiting violations.

Since the Guenthers lived in Calabasas, they had to move inside the boundaries of the L.A. Unified School District. So, they moved to a house in West Hills and applied for an open-enrollment transfer.

“It is probably the best thing we ever did,” Guenther Sr. said. “And I probably should have done it a year earlier. He’s a totally different kid.

“I was willing to buy a house for my son. He wanted out of Crespi and it wasn’t because of sports.”

While moving might be considered an extraordinary gesture by some, it is pretty much old hat for the Guenthers, who have lived in more than a dozen homes in the last 17 years.

Guenther Sr., co-owner of a real estate company, supplements his income by buying a run-down house and fixing it up for resale.

“We moved as many as four times in one year,” Guenther Sr. said.

Maybe that’s why Guenther moves so well. He’s agile in the post and has great quickness. And he’s got one of the best outside shots among centers in the region.

But it’s his pleasant demeanor that coaches and friends admire most.

“He’s just a happy-go-lucky type guy,” Drucker said. “He’s like a baby Shaq.”