high schools

Luck? Ask Dale Wakasugi about luck.

He felt lucky to be working as a referee on the basketball court on Tuesday night at Fridley High School. Two months ago, he was flat on his back on that same court as several people -- who came to watch a game and went home as lifesavers -- administered CPR.

He's lucky he was unable to hear them say, "He doesn't have a pulse!"

He's lucky the school was equipped with an automated external defibrillator (AED). It was used for the first time that mid-December night, delivering an electrical shock that brought Wakasugi back to life.

The 49-year-old from Woodbury suffered a heart attack during that December game, and Tuesday's contest between the Fridley and Totino-Grace girls' teams marked his return to the gym. After the game, a ceremony was held to honor Wakasugi and those who jumped out of the stands to save his life.

"I feel incredibly lucky," Wakasugi said. "This whole thing has been mind-boggling to me, because so many things had to happen for me to even be alive. The AED had to be there, which it was. All these things had to happen for me to be here. And they happened."

A few minutes before Tuesday's game began, Wakasugi approached the scorer's table -- where they had already labeled him "Lazarus the Referee" -- and said with a grin, "Should we try it again?"

After the on-court heart attack, three stents were implanted in his left anterior descending artery. He went home after four days at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, only to suffer another heart attack a day later.

He spent a week at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, where a pacemaker/defibrillator was implanted in his chest. He began a cardiac rehabilitation program on Jan. 4, and within a month he was officiating youth basketball games. He worked varsity games at Zimmerman, Delano and Cretin-Derham Hall in recent days.

Doctors gave him the OK to referee again, but the married father of two still felt some fear, as did his family.

"The battle was more mental," said Wakasugi, who works in sales for a California-based biomedical company and has been a high school referee for eight years. "Even my family thought I was jumping back on the court too soon. But I said, 'You're kidding. I've been in rehab six days a week for four weeks.'

"I had some fears. That's one of the reasons why this game is significant. It brings everything full circle."

His wife, Katie, sat in the stands with other family members, friends and Dale's co-workers. When the introduction of the starting lineups ended with, "Tonight's officials are Brad Panning and Dale Wakasugi," the cluster of family and friends cheered and applauded.

"It's good to see him out here," Katie said. "He absolutely loves officiating basketball games."

Wakasugi had suffered a heart attack in 1995 but had no inkling this latest round of problems was coming.

"We've been monitoring it, and I hadn't had one symptom since [1995]," he said.

During the postgame ceremony, 10 people who played a role in saving Wakasugi's life were honored, as were Fridley police, fire and ambulance personnel. Fridley athletic director Dan Roff called them "our starting lineup."

Fridley 11th-grader Lindsey Paradise, who had recently completed CPR and defibrillator training when Wakasugi went down, took a leading role in reviving him. Roff called her "the leading point-getter on this great team."

Tuesday's game, which Totino- Grace won 59-33, included all the usual whir of activities that surround a high school basketball game. And, of course, the coaches pleaded, cajoled and barked at the referees.

"That's a reach! That's a hack!" Fridley coach Jim Miller hollered. A few minutes later, Totino-Grace coach Shannon Hartinger, certain that Wakasugi had missed a foul, yelled as he ran in front of the bench, "Come on!"

And nobody was happier to be there than Lazarus the Referee.

"I feel great. I feel really awesome," he said. "And I kind of knock on wood every day when I say that."

We should all be so lucky.