UCLA Can’t Take LaChapelle for Granted : Bruins: He has caught 14 passes for 222 yards, but this summer he was lucky he wasn’t seriously hurt by an accidental gunshot.

It has been an eventful year for UCLA split end Sean LaChapelle, with football as only part of the scenario.

A carefree sort, LaChapelle has somehow managed to shoot himself in the leg, get in and out of Coach Terry Donahue’s doghouse and cause offensive coordinator Homer Smith to age considerably in one afternoon.

LaChapelle, 6 feet 4 and 205 pounds, is UCLA’s leading receiver with 14 catches for 222 yards and two touchdowns.

That he is playing at all this season is pure luck.

In June, LaChapelle, in company with defensive tackle Matt Werner, thought it would be a kick to shoot some rabbits near his father’s home in Elk Grove, near Sacramento.

“I had a 22-caliber handgun, and it didn’t register in my mind that it had a hair-trigger,” LaChapelle said.

Werner was adjusting his own gun when LaChapelle approached him. Bam. LaChapelle’s gun fired, the bullet entering and exiting LaChapelle’s lower leg.

“I barely touched the trigger,” said LaChapelle, who then pointed to two purplish circles on his left leg. “The bullet ricocheted off the shin bone and it traveled two, or three inches before it came out.”

LaChapelle is aware that if the bullet had taken a slightly different angle, he could have been seriously injured and might have missed at least part of the football season.

“As it was, I was playing catch the next day,” he said.

It was no more than an embarrassing incident for LaChapelle, whose father, Dean, is a lieutenant in the Sacramento Police Dept.

Now, fast-forward a month to an informal practice at UCLA.

“Coach Smith asked me why I wasn’t running,” LaChapelle said. “I said, ‘I shot myself.’ ”

LaChapelle chuckled as he recalled Smith’s reaction.

“What do you mean,” said the startled Smith. “Don’t do that to me.”

LaChapelle grew up in Napa, in the California wine country. He went to Vintage High School, and the team had an apt nickname, “the Crushers.”

“Our jerseys were cardinal and gold, like USC, while the rival high school, the Napa Indians, wore the colors of UCLA,” LaChapelle said.

LaChapelle said that he was a USC fan while growing up and that Marcus Allen was his idol.

He took recruiting trips to USC and UCLA, and although he said he liked USC, the atmosphere, living conditions and the campus were more to his liking at UCLA.

As an exuberant freshman, LaChapelle startled Donahue once when the coach was walking through a parking structure.

“I jumped on his back for a piggyback ride,” LaChapelle said. “While I was at Vintage High, we used to have wrestling matches with the coaches all the time. They treated us just like another guy.”

Donahue’s reaction?

“He didn’t act like he was mad,” LaChapelle said, “but I won’t do that again.”

Nor, most likely, will he ever return punts.

Last year, as a redshirt sophomore, LaChapelle was called upon to return punts in the season-opening game against Oklahoma.

“It was late in the first quarter and it was the first time I had ever touched a ball in a college game,” he said. “The year before, I just played a little bit on special teams.

“I was standing on our 10-yard line and I was told to fair-catch the ball. Then, I thought, ‘Maybe if I do something good. . . . ‘ “

So LaChapelle, disregarding instructions, returned the punt--but not very far.

“I had no trouble catching it, but somebody’s helmet hit the ball and it came out,” he said.

Oklahoma recovered the fumble at the six-yard line, then scored a touchdown for a 14-6 lead on its way to a 34-14 victory.

“I’ll never forget Coach Donahue yelling at me. He was mad,” LaChapelle said. “He said: ‘Sean, look what you have done to your team.’ I’ll remember that as long as I live. It helped me grow up faster.”

LaChapelle is UCLA’s most experienced wide receiver now that eligibility has expired for Scott Miller and Reggie Moore.

He doesn’t have blazing speed, running the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds. However, he’s a big target with subtle moves for his size. And it’s clear that he’s quarterback Tommy Maddox’s favorite target.

“He’s big, deceptive and has great moves,” Maddox said in evaluating LaChapelle. “He can shake man-to-man defenders very well. He has a knack that you can’t coach, finding the open spot.”

He’ll try to find some open areas Saturday against California at the Rose Bowl. Last year, in a 38-31 loss to Cal at Berkeley, he caught a career-high seven passes.

LaChapelle said that he aspires to become an actor for a simple reason: “You get to do something that you don’t do in real life.”

Just don’t cast him for any parts in which he has to use a gun.