EL CERRITO, Calif. — With a new coach and 13 first-year varsity players, El Cerrito’s 22-2 season up to now has been deemed remarkable, if not nearly miraculous.
And the team’s sparkling record has little to do with it.
David Gurganious
Photo courtesy of El Cerrito High School
On Feb. 2, the Gauchos and about 300 fans from the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area community watched in horror as one of their teammates, David Gurganious, very nearly succumbed to cardiac arrest.
In the closing minutes of a lopsided home victory over Richmond, the 6-foot-2, 165-pound sophomore forward, resting on the bench after playing most of the game, collapsed from a yet-to-be-determined heart ailment.
If not for the quick and steady CPR work that new coach Michael Booker, a lieutenant with the Richmond Police Department, and a parent, Daniel Rice, El Cerrito’s season might have taken a tragic turn rather than a triumphant one.
“My son was dead,” said David’s father Larry Gurganious. “There’s no doubt he had flat-lined. His heart had stopped.”
Gurganious actually stopped breathing twice, according to Booker, the second time for six or seven minutes before medics were able to get a pulse.
He was stabilized at a local hospital that night, and has spent the last eight days between two Bay Area hospitals while doctors conducted a series of tests. On Thursday, Larry Gurganious said his boy shows no signs of neurological injury and can speak and write normally.
David, a key sixth man on the team, is ready to come home and get a lot of rest. Well, according to Booker, he’s not all that ready to rest.
“My first phone call with him this week he said he wants to play basketball again,” Booker said. “The kid is just a gamer. He’s a definite fighter. That’s why he’s probably alive tonight. I told him we’ll talk about basketball a lot later.”
Larry Gurganious is an AAU coach and his older son Larry Jr. was an All-Metro star now playing at UC Riverside. He’s just thankful that David, a gregarious, fun-loving sort, is alive. Basketball is far from his lists of priorities.
“He’s considered out of danger, but he still has a long road for recovery,” Larry said. “I’m just so thankful and blessed to have my boy back. I just want him to have a normal life. I want him to be a zoologist like he’s always wanted.
“He could have come out of this paralyzed or with a stroke or brain damage. All the right people were in the right place at the right time. It was just God’s will.”
One of those in place was Booker, a calm, strong presence who came over to El Cerrito after a successful six-year stint at Kennedy. He’s had to administer CPR “a couple times” during his 20-year stint at the Richmond PD, but “it’s probably been 10 years since the last time I did it.
“No one wants to perform it on your own child and that’s how it felt. David is like a nephew to me. It’s the hardest thing I ever had to do in my career.”
Closing minutes
Booker had taken David out early in the fourth quarter of a 71-37 victory. He had his regular active game with seven points and a season-high three steals. Suddenly there was a commotion behind the El Cerrito bench.
“It looked like David was having a seizure,” Booker said.
There was a nurse in the stands and she told Booker to lay him on the gym floor and get his knees up. “He stopped breathing,” Booker said. “He went limp. … Someone in the crowd yelled ‘Call 911.’“
That was Larry Gurganious, living every parent’s worst nightmare.
“I saw the commotion and I saw they were laying out one of the players but I didn’t know it was David,” he said. “Not until they started doing CPR on him. It was like a horror movie.”
Daniel Rice, whose son by the same name is a starter on the team, is a firefighter and also well trained at CPR.
“He did the breathing,” Booker said. “I did the compression.”
It worked temporarily. David gave a small grasp of air and then slightly vomited. “He was breathing for about 20 seconds, but then he stopped again.”
For six or seven minutes, Booker said.
“The longest of my life,” Larry Gurganious said.
Tears filled the gym and others also. Calls went out to many of David’s loved ones and friends, asking for prayers, even at a nearby gym, where many of David’s basketball pals played for Pinole Valley High School.
“From what I heard there were tears being shed over there as well,” Larry Gurganious said.
Booker said he never gave up hope.
“You don’t think in those terms at that point,” he said. “Your training just kicks in. I’m not thinking he’s dying, I’m thinking what we can we do to keep him alive.”
Paramedics arrived just in time and immediately implemented a defibrillator, en electronic device that basically jump-starts hearts. They hit him once. No pulse. They shocked him again. Nothing. Eventually it worked. They got David on a gurney and by the time he reached the hospital he was trying to breathe on his own.
“That was a tremendous sign,” Booker said. “That’s David being a fighter.”
By the time he reached the hospital, doctors got David stabilized. Players and family arrived not only from El Cerrito and Richmond, but Pinole Valley also.
“At that point there was a lot of uncertainty,” Booker said. “There was a lot of crying, lots of love and support, lots of praying.”
Evidently, all were answered. According to his father, doctors induced David into a coma to do tests and when he eventually woke he couldn’t speak. Instead he asked for a writing tablet.
He wrote “I want my dad.”
Larry Gurganious and son David at hospital.
Photo courtesy of Gurganious family
When his dad arrived, the second thing he wrote was “I love you,” driving a big, strong man to tears. Said Larry Gurganious: “I just thought I have my son again and thanked and praised God.”
He, of course, thanked a giving and supportive community as well. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors sent an autographed picture and the Clippers’ Eric Gordon delivered an autographed jersey. The Warriors' Ronny Turiaf, who actually hosted the Gurganious family when Larry Jr. was a recruit and later a player at Gonzaga, also reached out.
Turiaf, of course, had open heart surgery after college to repar a dialated aorta. He's now part of the American Society of Echocardiography to create awareness of heart health.
"None of this is a coincidence," Larry Gurganious said. "We're all connected."
Well-wishers have come from every nook and cranny of the Bay Area.
“I can’t thank everyone enough,” Larry Gurganious said.
Especially Booker and Rice.
“People have said that we saved his life, but it wasn’t us,” Booker said. “It was God. We were just there to assist.”
The Gauchos
Booker gave his team the option to end or suspend their season but the Gauchos continued on with a spirited 82-54 win over Alameda on Tuesday. They backed that up with a gritty 62-52 win over Pinole Valley to clinch a share the Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League title.
The team wore wrist bands with David’s No. 20 and a heart sewn on each warm-up.
“They’ve played with a lot of purpose the last two nights,” Booker said. “They’ve played, obviously, for David.”
Few are expecting the Gauchos to challenge Bishop O'Dowd of Oakland or defending champion Analy of Sebastopol for the North Coast Section Division III crown. But nobody could have fathomed 22-2 either. Both of the losses have been by one point – to Terra Linda (59-58) and Enterprise (64-63).
They’ve shown tremendous balance and guard play with Jabri Jenkins, a 6-3 slasher with a nice mid-range game who is the team’s leading scorer at 13.9 points per game. “He’s old school,” Booker said. “He doesn’t play above the rim but he’s heady.”
Bobby Syvanthong, a 5-7 point guard, might be the league’s MVP the way he controls tempo and distributes the ball. He’s also the team’s second-leading scorer at 10.9. “He plays with both hands and is a great penetrator,” Booker said.
Isaac Goins, the team’s only returner from last year, is also a rugged football standout and is the team’s best pure shooter. “He’s strong enough to guard kids 6-4 and 6-5,” Booker said. Daniel Rice Il is the team’s best defender and also has a strong mid-range game, while Jamontee' Condor is instant offense off the bench with a 10.4 scoring average and a tenacious rebounder for his 5-9 frame.
The key might be Eric Nelson Il, a 6-7 transfer from Richmond, who doesn’t score much (5.7 ppg) but averages three blocks per game.
David Gurganious (20) has been a great spark off the bench.
Photo courtesy of El Cerrito High School
“Nobody expected much of this group and rightfully so,” Booker said. “They had little to no experience but have simply bought in and played hard and meshed together.”
It would be nice to have David’s 6.5 points a game coming off the bench. More so, the Gauchos would love to see his beaming face and prankster personality. But they can play for him and best of all, they can visit him and slap hands and bump chests. Ever-so-gently, of course.
How they fare in the playoffs is of secondary concern, said Booker. This season, next season and for any competition they compete from here on out. Especially in light of an even greater tragedy that took place just four days early in the Bay Area. Joshua Ellison, a 17-year-old senior at Calvary Christian Academy in El Sobrante, died on the court during an organized game, apparently also because of heart malfunction. During the fall, another Bay Area basketball player, Darius Jones, a De La Salle sophomore perished on the court during an AAU game due to similar causes.
Larry Gurganious, Booker and the communities at El Cerrito, Calvary Christian and De La Salle are now starting movements to get regular EKG testing done among youth and defibrillators distributed in every school.
“Unfortunately, in those communities, those young men were not as fortunate as David,” Booker said. “We had empathy then and even more so now. The reality is that (heart failures) can happen to anyone at any time. In a blink of an eye, situations in life can change.
“Through all of this I think the boys have definitely learned that basketball is truly just a game. Things like friendship and family and life are much more precious.”
