For Huskies’ Pierce, Victory Came Off Field : Rose Bowl: Tight end for Washington overcame drinking problem after being arrested.

Summoned to meet with Washington football Coach Don James one day last February, Aaron Pierce was sure that James was going to kick him off the team.

It wasn’t a matter of the Huskies not needing Pierce.

On the contrary, Pierce was a valuable member of a team that had wrapped up a hugely successful 1990 season by defeating Iowa, 46-34, in the 1991 Rose Bowl game a month earlier.

A 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end with sprinter’s speed, he was a starter in nine games for the Huskies as a junior. Pierce caught 20 passes, four in the Rose Bowl, and made several key blocks despite a broken right wrist.

He had won the “Tough Husky” award at season’s end.

But Pierce’s drinking problem was about to go public.

On Feb. 4, he was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest, criminal trespass and property damage after he allegedly broke into an occupied student apartment in Seattle’s University District.

In a police report of the late-night incident, Pierce was described as disoriented and speaking gibberish. He allegedly told one of the apartment’s occupants that he loved him and bit an arresting officer on the knee.

It wasn’t the first time that drinking had landed Pierce in James’ office, but Pierce feared that it might be the last. He was afraid that James would turn his back on him.

“I’m sure when he came in here, he thought he was history,” James said, smiling. “He was borderline. It was close.”

James can smile at the memory now. Pierce, after serving a six-month suspension imposed by James last spring and summer--during which he participated in an alcohol rehabilitation program--has had a productive senior season.

A starter in all 11 games, he caught 23 passes for 280 yards, earned second-team All-Pacific 10 Conference recognition and helped Washington earn a second consecutive Rose Bowl bid.

Pierce said he hasn’t had a drink since the night of his arrest. He received a deferred sentence, meaning the charges against him are dropped unless he is arrested again for a similar offense.

“The easiest way to solve the problem would have been to ship him out,” James said. “But I’ve never had that philosophy as a coach. We’re going to spend time first, rehabilitating and counseling. But if we feel like we’re failing, we’ll draw a line as to how far we’ll go.”

Pierce almost crossed it.

Usually quiet and reserved, he was more aggressive and easier to provoke when he drank. When drunk, Pierce often got into fights, frequently winding up in James’ office for a lecture and a warning the next day.

“This is not normal,” James would tell him.

Pierce said he knew he had a problem three years ago.

“But I didn’t really realize it until my name was in the paper everywhere (last February),” he said. “Then I really realized, ‘You have a serious problem. You can’t just slide by,’ which I was trying to do. . . .

“I didn’t drink more than anyone else, or more often than anyone else, but my body reacted differently. I was more edgy, more (prone) to fighting.

“If I drink, I’m more of an (idiot), I guess you could say.”

And more apt to lose control.

“The next day, people would tell me what I’d done,” Pierce said. “People telling me what I did was kind of scary--instead of me knowing. I could remember some things, but others I couldn’t. It just wasn’t me.”

Pierce said he started drinking in high school.

“When I started playing sports is when I started drinking,” he said. “It was something everybody did--going out drinking after games.”

He remembers little about the night of his arrest.

It was a friend’s birthday, and Pierce was “drinking excessively,” he said, first at a party and later at a bar.

But he was shocked to read accounts of what happened later.

“It made me sound like somebody who was crazy,” he said.

It pained him to read about it in the newspaper.

“It’s unfortunate that it had to be everybody else’s business, too,” he said, “but it’s better for me to remember.”

During his suspension, Pierce was not allowed to use athletic department facilities, forcing him to work out on his own.

He noticed that his classmates looked at him differently.

Some turned away.

“I wasn’t angry,” he said. “They had a right to be scared of me after reading something in the paper that made me sound totally crazy.”

During spring practice, James and his staff tried in vain to find a suitable replacement for Pierce, whose status for the season was unknown at the time. They had been counting on Pierce, but would he be back?

Bruce Bailey, a converted offensive guard and the Huskies’ long snapper, emerged from spring drills as the No. 1 tight end. His backup, P.A. Emerson, was a converted defensive tackle. Another prospect, Jeff Jackson, quit football because of a chronic nerve injury.

“The position was a disaster last spring,” James said.

Aware of the situation, Pierce was vigilant.

“It gave me more incentive to come back, thinking they needed me,” he said. “I was taking 18 credits in class, working out, going to rehab meetings. My days were pretty full, 8 (a.m.) to 9 (p.m.).”

At the end of July, James lifted the suspension.

Pierce won back his job. But he didn’t catch any of quarterback Billy Joe Hobert’s school-record 22 touchdown passes, after making four touchdown receptions as a junior.

“He’s the type of guy that represents the total package in terms of the position,” said Myles Corrigan, who coaches the Husky tight ends. “He’s got great speed, excellent hands and blocks (for) the run real well.

“He caught a lot of (passes) in third-down situations, which reflected the fact that he was able to perform in clutch situations.”

Corrigan was one of several people, including Pierce’s mother, Leslie, and a former girlfriend, who spoke to James on Pierce’s behalf last February, urging the Husky coach to give him another chance.

“Just because Aaron has a problem in one aspect of his life doesn’t mean you just flush him,” Corrigan said. “From my perspective, there was a lot there that was very, very salvageable.

“For Aaron, it was just a matter of getting him to realize the potential within himself and admit that there was a problem.”

Pierce is aware that tougher battles might lie ahead.

“There have been situations I didn’t like to be in--situations where I could easily have been tempted,” he said. “But the temptation wasn’t very strong because what happened to me is so recent.”

Pierce is ready to carry on.

“I can’t say I’m really proud of myself,” he said. “I did what I had to do. I couldn’t see myself not doing what I did.

“I’ve made it through so far. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? I’m glad to be where I am today. I’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.”