Scars run deep

PITTSBURGH -- A month after two bullets pierced his brain, Sam Ashaolu, the 6-foot-7-inch Duquesne power forward and Toronto native, rose from his wheelchair at Mercy Hospital and slowly and methodically walked several steps to stand on a scale.

Ashaolu, the most severely injured and the only one of five Duquesne basketball players still hospitalized after a Sept. 17 shooting at a school dance, smiled ear to ear. Since being taken off a feeding tube, Ashaolu has regained 10 of the 30 pounds he lost after the shootings. His coach, who supplemented the hospital food and nutritional drinks with some spaghetti and meatballs brought from Hanlon's Cafe, reacted as if he made it to the Final Four.

``You're witnessing a miracle," said Ron Everhart after watching Ashaolu woof down lunch, respond to basic questions, and softly ask for two teammates. ``To see Sam get right out of bed, balance, and walk on his own, these are the victories, not basketball."

There's a lot of love at Mercy Hospital and prayers for Ashaolu, a junior recruited from Lake Region State College in North Dakota last spring who dreamed of playing Division 1 basketball. His hospital room door is covered with get-well wishes from hundreds of Duquesne students. He is being trained to play an NBA video game, and he's flirting with nurses -- definitely a good sign, according to his coach. Ashaolu has also started riding an exercise bike.

``We're just taking it day by day," said Everhart. ``And every day he seems to be getting better. Every one of his doctors says his upward curve has been very, very good. I'm praying like a son of a gun. It's very inspirational to see him up and around."

Everhart says one of his greatest thrills was seeing Ashaolu open his eyes, a week after the shootings: ``I said, `C'mon , you ready to run?' and he looked up and high-fived me. That made me feel great."

Ashaolu's older brother John was ecstatic. ``Everybody's prayers are working, that's why he's getting better," he said. ``I pray that he can get better and come back and play next season. Imagine when he walks on the court."

Said Everhart, ``We're not worried about that now. We just want him to lead a healthy life. He'll always be part of our program."

But doctors have also cautioned that bullet fragments remain in Ashaolu's brain and he could have some lingering mental impairment. Ashaolu sometimes gets frustrated trying to speak. ``If you have a coffee cup, he knows what that is, but he can't yet say it," said Everhart. ``That's from having the bullet in the right frontal lobe. But the good news is he could be released at the end of the month."

Because of security concerns following the shooting, a password is needed to enter his room at the brain rehabilitation unit. Two men have been charged in the shootings, which terrorized the downtown Pittsburgh campus.

``Man, I got a whole new outlook on life," said former Northeastern star Shawn James, who was shot in the foot. ``It could end so fast."

The other good news is Aaron Jackson, a sophomore guard from Hartford who was grazed by a bullet, is already practicing, and the other three players have recovered enough to be out on the court after practice.

``It was phenomenal," said Everhart, describing his players' reactions when the shootings began. ``We had several guys moving toward the gunfire to get our other guys out of the way. Bullets from a semiautomatic pinging against the fence, and off the sidewalk. That was what was so courageous about this whole thing. We had guys that put their lives in jeopardy to come to the rescue of their teammates. I thought our kids acted with the type of bravery and courage that you could only dream of. These are the guys you are proud to coach and go into battle with."

Everhart, who left Northeastern after last season to rebuild Duquesne, said the players were just getting to know each other at a football game earlier in the day and then at the party, sponsored by the Black Student Union. ``Judging by the way our guys reacted and seeing the bonding, I'm not worried at all about our basketball team," he said. ``To lay down in the path of a bullet, we've got a basketball team."

Everhart had worried about his players. In August, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked him about his biggest concerns. ``I'm nervous every day I walk into the office that I'll get a phone call about one of my players being in trouble," the coach replied.

That's just what happened when a phone call woke him at 2:41 that Sunday morning in his suburban Pittsburgh home. His 7-year-old twins were safely snuggled in bed. His other kids were in big trouble. ``My wife hands me the phone . . . you're asleep. Then you're talking and putting on socks and shoes and heading out the door," he recalled. ``You never dreamed five of your guys would come under fire in the middle of your campus, which according to US News & World Report is one of the safest in the country."

Four more calls followed as Everhart raced toward Mercy Hospital, not far from the team's home at A.J. Palumbo Center. ``You're hearing bits and pieces of the story and going nuts and all you're thinking is, `Please be OK. Please don't be so bad.' "

Everhart burst into the emergency room. James, the nation's leading shot-blocker last season, was shot in the foot, his sock drenched in blood. Jackson, one of only two returning players, was treated and released.

Ashaolu was in critical condition. ``Two of our guys were very emotional," said Everhart. ``Both guys ran into a doctor who said Sam would be lucky to survive the night."

Stuard Baldonado, a 6-7 power forward from Colombia, was shot in the arm and back, the bullet missing his spinal cord by a quarter-inch. Surgeons had to take a vein from his groin to repair the damage. Kojo Mensah, a 6-1 guard who played at Siena, was shot in the arm and shoulder.

Everhart held a team meeting in the parking lot and the school had a prayer vigil. ``I told them to keep their heads up, chins out," he said. ``You don't have time to cry or think about it. There was a lot of blood on the brick. You can still see the stain.

``As gruesome as it sounds, it could be so much worse. I was sitting here thanking God every minute of every day that it was not what it could have been, given the circumstances."

``After the event, [our] guys are walking down Academic Walk, near where the dorm was. Another girl puts her arm around one of our guys and says, `Where you from? How you doing?' The other kid yells, `Come over here. What are you doing talking to those other kids? Come here.' An argument breaks out."

Everhart said his players acknowledged that there was something said back. But James -- his coach's voice ringing in his ears -- told teammates, ``We can't have a confrontation with these guys, we've got scholarships. We're not going to have a scholarship if we have a fight with these guys."

``Our boys were walking away and all hell breaks loose, " Everhart said.

Erica Sager, 18, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., reportedly screamed, ``Shoot those [a racial epithet]," according to several players.

Police have charged William Holmes and Derek Lee, both 18, with five counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault, and single counts of conspiracy and weapons violations. They are being held without bond. Sager is charged with five counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal solicitation. None are Duquesne students. One suspended Duquesne student, Brittany Jones, has been charged with reckless endangerment and conspiracy -- helping get Lee and Holmes into the dance, despite knowing they carried guns.

``When Stuard [Baldonado] got hit, Stephen [Wood] dove on the bricks, ripped off his shirt, and put a tourniquet on his arm," said Everhart. ``At the same time, Kojo got hit in the arm and in his back. Aaron Jackson was right beside him. He grabbed him and barricaded him inside the dorm.

``The same bullet that hit his hand went into Kojo's arm. He got hit saving him. He runs through the dorm, gets his car, drives around and carries Stuard [who weighs 225 pounds] on his back to the car and the ER.

``When you think about a bunch of kids reacting to that situation, it just gives you chills, it really does."

A basketball lifer, Everhart, 44, now worries more about kids shooting bullets than baskets.

``Basketball is just so irrelevant," he said. ``When you hear guys say, `It's only a game,' as a coach, I've always resented that because it's your profession and it's these kids' lives. I think now I understand exactly what they mean."

Everhart says he hasn't had a good night's sleep since the shootings. ``I'm as tired as I've ever been in my whole life," he said. ``I'm beat up. I really feel beat up."

With a bullet lodged in his foot, James sits on the coach's couch and reads the 27th Psalms: ``Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart."

James left Northeastern after two years so he could be with Everhart. He is ineligible for this season. ``That's my boy; I'm here to play for Coach because he pushes you," said James with a broad smile. ``A little too hard."

James said his coach ``came up big" after the shootings. ``He's been great. He lives at the hospital."

Later in the day, after yet another hospital visit, Everhart heads for practice.

This is Everhart's comfort zone -- he still uses the 1994 whistle from McNeese State to remember his roots. He's old school. No earrings, facial hair, or sloppy dress. If you don't hustle, you don't play. He yells so much at his players that his 7-year-old son doesn't come to practice anymore.

Although Everhart turned around programs at McNeese State and Northeastern, he inherited a Duquesne team that was 3-24 last season, the worst record since basketball started here in 1914. The Dukes have had just two winning seasons in 25 years.

``I've got the blue-collar, bang-your-head-against-the-wall mentality," he said, noting, `` it brings you together, tough times do. It's been overwhelming. You always know going into the season, the stress is coming."

The team looks more like a M*A*S*H unit than a basketball team. Players line the wall in braces, casts, and crutches.

``We should have an infirmary," Everhart said with a smile. Three other players not involved in the shooting are injured; several players are walk-ons.

Last night, the team held open tryouts at the Palumbo Center.

``We lost the majority of our big guys," says Everhart. ``But we're not totally decimated."

The first exhibition game is Nov. 1. Only Jackson is able to officially practice.

``We're going to be small," said Everhart. ``We've got our challenges."

At one point, Wood is curtly banished from practice and told to hit the treadmill. ``If you can't get downcourt quick enough, I'll find somebody who can," Everhart says sternly.

``My thing is, I'm going to yell at you, " Everhart said later. ``I'm going to scream at you. I'm going to curse at you. I'm going to challenge you every single day of your career here. I'm not one of those coaches that's going to come in here and pat you on the behind and tell you how good you are. If I do that and you come here two days later, you're asking, `Hey where's this nice guy that recruited me,' and you're disappointed."

Whatever he's doing, it works -- at Northeastern, he transformed a program that averaged fewer than nine wins in the six seasons prior to his arrival to one that averaged 16.4 wins in Everhart's five years there.

After practice, some of the wounded players take the court for a shootaround. Baldonado hits three treys in a row from the corner. His left arm has bandages like railroad tracks that show where doctors transplanted the vein. He still has nerve damage in his fingers.

``It was great to see Stuard out there," said Everhart, saying it's possible he could play this season. ``The prognosis is as good as it could possibly be for all our players. "

Everhart says their health is priority No. 1.

``If we go out and compete in every game and get better in every game, but we don't win a game, I'll be perfectly satisfied."

Stopping gun violence is more important.

``It really stirs your blood to the point where this is my mission," Everhart said. ``Now it's personal. This can't end here with guys just healing up and getting better because the emotional scars will last forever. If this can happen here, it can happen anywhere.

``Everyone says, `Ron, now you've got to focus on your team,' and I understand that. That's why I'm here. What do we do now? How do we start this crusade to stop this senseless random violence that has taken away our youth?

``We're losing a generation of kids right now because our society has been infected by gun violence."

Stan Grossfeld can be reached at grossfeld@globe.com ROAD TO RECOVERY To see a photo gallery of the Duquesne basketball team and its ongoing recovery, go to boston.com.