A Persevering Vandal After Being Shot In Head As A Youth, Gussett Makes An Impression

With every bounce of the basketball, her right palm and fingertips pushing the round, textured object to the floor, Kathryn Gussett is drawn to what happened more than 10 years ago.

Every time she feels inconvenienced because she needs to turn her right pants pocket inside out - just to pick out a keychain from a quarter - she remembers it could have been so much worse.

Ask what happened that summer day in Hayfork, Calif., and Gussett weaves her fingers through her long, dark brown hair, lifts it away from the left side of her head and exposes a bald spot. It’s the biggest reminder of all about the time she accidently was injured by a gunshot wound to the head.

“It was a 30-aught-6 … that’s a rifle,” said Gussett, a starting forward on the much-improved University of Idaho women’s basketball team.

A .30-06 hunting rifle, powerful enough to kill deer or elk. It belonged to her playmate’s parents. The two curious young girls were messing around with the weapon when the friend dropped it on a bed.

When the trigger released, the 11-year-old Gussett was about 3 feet away. The stray bullet grazed the left side of her head. She came within centimeters of being killed.

“It was stupid. But you know curiosity. And that’s what happens,” she said.

Gussett doesn’t talk about the injury much anymore. Ten years is a long time in the life of a 21-year-old.

She no longer keeps in touch with her childhood friend. It’s not so much because of the horrible accident, but because her family moved from tiny Hayfork to the bigger northeastern California town of Susanville. Gussett, an athlete from early on, has moved on to Moscow.

She inadvertently was discovered when Idaho coach Julie Holt received tapes after inquiring about another player from Gussett’s Lassen (Calif.) Junior College team. Holt recalled she was more impressed with the team’s sophomore center, 5-foot-10 Gussett.

“But I kept saying, ‘She’s too small for a four (power forward). She’s too small,”’ Holt said.

Three tapes later, Holt was more convinced to fight off logic and go with her gut feeling. She could not overlook Gussett’s court presence, ball handling and all-out hustle.

Not even Gussett’s slight handicap could get in the way.

“You would never know,” Holt said. “As a matter of fact, I didn’t know about it until toward the end of the season last year. We were all telling stories.”

Gussett’s story included the deafening sound of gunfire, a horrifying airlift ride to a hospital miles away and the trauma of surgery.

“After that, you look at things a lot differently. Things can go like that,” said Gussett.

The bullet severed her skull, requiring 5 hours of surgery. Doctors attempted to repair a hole in her brian that was about the size of a silver dollar. For one year throughout fifth grade, she wore a hockey-style helmet to protect a soft spot. When doctors realized her skull was not fusing, Gussett underwent more surgery.

“They took a piece of my hip and placed it in the soft spot,” explained Gussett, rolling down the elastic waistband on her warmups to show off a razor-thin scar.

Small scars and shiny bald spots are easily concealed. But the nerve damage, the most invisible of all, remains.

“My right hand is different. I only have 85 to 90 percent feeling in it,” she said. “I dribble with my right hand, but I can’t feel the texture in the ball. But I know it’s there.”

Gussett said she still writes with her right hand, but avoids putting things in her right pocket.

“I can’t feel what I’m grabbing out. I’ll bring the entire pocket out because I can’t feel what I have. It’s easier to grab with my left hand,” she said.

On the upside, she’s convinced the injury has improved her vision. “I can see so well. I’m so visually in tune because I have to watch what my hand is doing.”

Gussett started all 28 Vandals games last year, averaging 8.6 points on .423 shooting and 5.4 rebounds. She, center Alli Nieman and shooting guard Kelli Johnson are the three starters back from last year’s 14-14 overall, 8-6 Big West Conference team.

UI opens at home tonight against Lewis-Clark State.

Nieman, the 1996 Big West freshman player of the year, is playing volleyball and is expected to join the basketball team soon. Last year, she started all 28 games and had team highs of 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game.

With the graduation of Ari Skorpik, Idaho will be young at the point guard position, but not inexperienced. Sophomore Susan Woolf is back after missing all but seven games last season with injuries.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. BIG WEST POLLS Coaches’ poll (first-place votes in parentheses) Eastern Division 1. Nevada (11) 55 2. Boise State 38 3. Idaho 32 4. New Mexico State 29 5. North Texas 11 Western Division 1. UCSB (11) 66 2. IC Irvine 52 3. Long Beach State 40 4. Pacific 34 5. Cal State Fullerton 25 6. Cal Poly-SLO 15

Media poll Eastern Division 1. Nevada (16) 100 2. Idaho (2) 73 3. N.M. State (3) 66 4. Boise State (1) 65 5. North Texas 26 Western Division 1. UCSB (19) 129 2. IC Irvine (3) 100 3. Long Beach State 79 4. Pacific 73 5. Cal State Fullerton 50 6. Cal Poly-SLO 31

2. UI WOMEN’S BASKETBALL AT A GLANCE Coach: Julie Holt (fourth year) Assistant coaches: Hilary Recknor, Jennifer Britton, Mary Kincaid 1996 record: 14-14, 8-6 (second place Big West Eastern Division) Players to watch: So. Alli Nieman (6-0, C); So. Susan Woolf (5-5, G); Sr. Kathryn Gussett (5-0, F); Sr. Kelli Johnson (5-10, G); Jr. Jennifer Stone (6-1, Jr.) Key newcomer: Fr. Tasha Rico (5-5, G) Bonus points: The Vandals beat Simon Frazier 67-61 in an exhibition game last week. … Holt’s new assistant coaching staff played at Washington (Recknor), Long Beach State (Britton) and Whitman College (Kincaid). … Although Kelly Benad is listed from Eugene, Ore., the freshman guard played at Mead High before she moved to Oregon after her sophomore year. More recently, she was on the Spokane Stars 16U team. … Kelly Bartleson, formerly a guard on the Eastern Washington team, is redshirting at UI. Outlook: Holt believes this is her best team since taking over a 3-22 program after the 1993-94 season. She has blue-chippers in Nieman and Woolf, and with a solid supporting cast, the Vandals should contend for the BWC Eastern Division crown. But overall, Western Division UC Santa Barbara should be a notch above.

ROSTER Name Pos. Ht. Yr. Hometown Kelli Johnson G 5-10 Sr. Moscow, Idaho Susan Woolf G 5-5 So. Andover, Kan. Alison Roberts G 5-3 Fr. Lewiston Suzy Goss F 5-11 Fr. Boise Lauren Newman F 6-0 Sr. Oxnard, Calif. Kathryn Gussett F 5-10 Sr. Susanville, Calif. Melisa McDaniel G 5-6 Sr. Grandview, Idaho Dana Purcell F 6-1 So. Mercer Island, Wash. Kelly Benad G 5-10 Fr. Eugene, Ore. Tasha Rico G 5-5 Fr. Toledo, Wash. Lara Chaney C 6-7 So. Richmond, Wash. Alli Nieman F 6-1 So. Sandpoint Jennifer Stone C 6-1 Jr. Craigmont, Idaho Laura Bloom C 6-0 Fr. Lewiston

1997-98 SCHEDULE Nov. 18 vs. Lewis-Clark State 7 p.m. Nov. 21 vs. Oregon 7 p.m. Nov. 24 at San Jose State 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28-30 at Honolulu Tournament Nov. 28 vs. Iowa State 11 a.m. Nov. 29 vs. Alabama or Marshall Nov. 30 Consolation/championship games TBA Dec. 4 vs. Eastern Washington 7 p.m. Dec. 9 vs. Washington State 7 p.m. Dec. 13 vs. Portland 7 p.m. Dec. 19 vs. Gonzaga 7 p.m. Dec. 29 at Utah 6 p.m. Dec. 30 at Bringham Young 5 p.m. Jan. 3 at San Francisco 5 p.m. Jan. 8 at Santa Barbara 7 p.m. Jan. 11 at Cal Poly-SLO 2 p.m. Jan. 16 vs. Cal State Fullerton 7 p.m. Jan. 18 vs. UC Irvine 2 p.m. Jan. 22 at Boise State 6 p.m. Jan. 26 vs. Nevada 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at Eastern Washington 7 p.m. Jan. 30 at Pacific 7 p.m. Feb. 6 at North Texas 7 p.m. Feb. 8 at New Mexico State 7 p.m. Feb. 13 vs. North Texas 7 p.m. Feb. 20 vs. New Mexico State 7 p.m. Feb. 22 at Nevada 2 p.m. Feb. 26 vs. Long Beach State 7 p.m. Feb. 28 vs. Boise State 7 p.m.