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Fordham basketball player, son of former

Coeur d’Alene High athlete,

recovering following stroke

Jesse Bunting, the Fordham basketball player who suffered a minor stroke last Monday, is doing “a lot better,” his father, who lives in Post Falls, said Sunday.

“We are blessed our son is alive and will make a full recovery,” said Bill Bunting, who played on Coeur d’Alene High’s boys basketball state championship team in 1973.

Jesse Bunting, a 6-foot-8 senior starting center, was averaging 6.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 23 minutes per game. He missed the last two games of the regular season for Fordham (12-19, 3-15 Atlantic-10), and will miss the upcoming conference tournament.

Bill Bunting said his son told him he woke up last Monday and said his arm “didn’t work,” and thought he had slept on it. “He tried to get out of bed and fell on the floor, onto a previously surgically repaired shoulder,” Bill said.

Bill Bunting said Jesse told him he had no feeling in the left side of his face, and no ability to move his left arm and leg.

Bill said the stroke had “zero effect” on his son’s cognative function. Jesse is in a physical rehabilitation facility.

“He has a great prognosis, yet he still faces a heart surgery in a few weeks to repair a small hole in his heart wall,” Bill said. “We are incredibly lucky.”

Jesse Bunting was born in Encinitas, Calif., and played basketball for three years at Plymouth North High in Plymouth, Mass.

He then played at Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass., and attracted more than 20 scholarship offers from mid-major schools, Bill said.

Jesse has already graduated with a business degree and is working on his master’s, dad said.