Townsend Gets Another Shot, Swishes It

Sometimes the littlest things are taken for granted, such as the freedom to walk on a high school campus without someone always looking over your shoulder.

Adam Townsend is so soft-spoken that hardly anyone notices what it means to him to be a regular student at Sun Valley Poly High. He can’t wait to greet friends, try cafeteria food, hang out in the quad, sit in a classroom and learn.

“It’s a second chance to do something with my life,” he said.

Townsend is a 6-foot-5 senior basketball player in his first year of a real high school experience. He’s averaging 16.2 points and 12.8 rebounds.

His life changed when his mother died of cancer in 1997. He started associating with the wrong kind of friends.

At 14, he got caught vandalizing a home. He was sentenced to four to six months in a juvenile detention facility.

Then he flunked a drug test, having smoked marijuana while on probation. His punishment grew.

Most of his high school years were spent at Camp Gonzales and Kilpatrick in Malibu, Challenger in Lancaster and continuation schools in Long Beach and Littlerock.

Last March, he was set free, off probation and ready to test himself in the real world. He had no contact with his father, so he turned to his grandparents, Don and Diane Greenwaldt of Sun Valley.

“Can I live with you?” he asked.

“He needed someone,” Don said.

He enrolled at Poly in August. He was scared. He knew what was at stake.

“At first, it was kind of hard because I was nervous,” he said. “What am I going to do? I told myself, ‘You can’t do anything,’ because it was my last chance.”

He got four A’s on his first report card. He joined the basketball team and made friends with his teammates. So far he seems to be a good citizen at school and at home.

“I think he’s going to do good, and basketball has given him something to look forward to,” Don said.

Said Townsend: “I’m excited because I haven’t really had too many opportunities to do anything. This is my chance, so I figure I have to make the best of it, try my hardest and make things a little brighter for the future.”

Townsend knew what he did was wrong, but like many teenagers, he didn’t think he’d be caught. He seems to have learned a crucial lesson.

“I learned everything you do has consequences,” he said. “You do the wrong things, you go to jail and waste your life away. Since I’m not on probation, it’s on me. I’m a regular person now. Anything I do is my fault. It’s my responsibility.”

Poly Coach Brad Katz said Townsend is enjoying his senior year.

“He’s like a kid in a candy store,” he said. “He’s a good kid finding his way. I think the No. 1 thing he enjoys is being able to hang out with the players.”

Townsend said he wants to attend college and become a policeman.

“I can help kids not make the same mistakes I did,” he said.

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Finally, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and Lakewood Artesia played each other in a boys’ basketball game Saturday. During the 1990s, there was always speculation who’d win the matchup. Artesia was filled with all-star players; Harvard-Westlake had the Collins twins, Jason and Jarron.

This time, Harvard-Westlake won, 71-60. There was one player on the court who’s going to have no trouble upholding the tradition of Ed and Charles O’Bannon from Artesia and the Collins twins.

Sophomore Bryce Taylor of Harvard-Westlake scored 26 points and had seven rebounds and five assists. He has grown to 6-4 and improved his skills so much in a year’s time that it is scary to think how good he’ll be by his senior year.

“I’ve been feeling confidence in my shot, like every time I shoot it’s going to go in,” Taylor said. “Every practice I work hard and try to get better.”

Taylor is one player UCLA and USC had better not let get away to Stanford, Duke or Arizona in 2004.

It’s going to be another entertaining game on Saturday night, when Taylor and Harvard-Westlake (18-3) take on Loyola (16-3) and Omar Wilkes at Loyola.

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Steve Hall, the Marmonte League lineman of the year at Westlake Village Westlake, has committed to Nevada Las Vegas....

Defensive back Marcus McCutcheon of Huntington Beach Edison has committed to Stanford....

Winston Justice, the Long Beach Poly offensive lineman who last week said, “I’m a Trojan,” indicated Monday he doesn’t know what school he’ll attend. He visited UCLA last weekend and has put himself in the “undecided” category....

Receiver Ramal Porter of Van Nuys Birmingham has committed to San Diego State....

Brad Wright, who played basketball at Los Angeles Murphy High and UCLA, has been hired as men’s coach at Woodland Hills Pierce College....

How’s this for a remarkable streak: In 27 years of coaching high school basketball, Greg Hilliard of Harvard-Westlake has never received a technical foul.

“I tried refereeing once,” he said. “I can’t do it, so I can’t get on them.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.