He Shares Memories With New Kids Around the Block : Football: Matt Stevens, former standout quarterback at Fountain Valley and UCLA, has become a role model for children in his neighborhood.

They gather around him nearly every night, like a pack of streetwise cubs, listening to the same old story.

Not the one about playing in front of 30,000 screaming fans--though he could tell it. Not the one where he threw for seven touchdowns and ran for another--though he could tell that one, too. No, the topic of the evening, every evening, that Matt Stevens chooses to share with his 9- and 10-year-old neighborhood buddies is the story of life. Not his, but theirs.

“I don’t know if I’m doing any good, but I try to be a role model,” says Stevens, former quarterback at Fountain Valley High and UCLA. “I tell the kids about right and wrong, about the importance of school, about treating people--and themselves--with respect. . . . “

Although he was a quarterback since he can remember, Stevens, 27, seems most comfortable in his current position: living in Santa Monica where he works as a mortgage financier, playing a little flag football now and then, getting to know what the low-key side of life is all about.

Not that his is uneventful. Three weeks ago, Stevens was drafted by the Arkansas Miners, an affiliate of the Professional Spring Football League. He readied himself for Little Rock--mentally, at least--only to learn the league folded because of financial problems a few weeks later. Wednesday, he learned the league might be back.

Meanwhile, he’s been contacted about playing in the World League of American Football and the Arena Football League, both options, he says, he’d consider.

“At least as a hobby,” Stevens said with a laugh.

His amusement is understandable.

At 6 feet, 185 pounds, Stevens was never close to being the model quarterback. And though he was a high school All-American, his career at UCLA was erratic, at best. Add to that a sparse pro career--he played with the Kansas City Chiefs during the 1987 strike season, with the L.A. Cobras of Arena Football in 1988 and finished his career by leading the Legnano Frogs of Italy to the 1990 Italian Super Bowl--and you’ve got a guy in a stylish business suit wondering what he did to deserve another chance.

“Let’s just say my hopes (of playing pro football again) aren’t real high,” Stevens said. “I wish they were. I mean, I love the game, but there’s a point in time. . . . “

When memories have to do. And Stevens has some good ones.

At Fountain Valley, Stevens was an All-Southern Section selection as a junior in 1980, guiding the Barons to the Big Five title game against Edison. Fountain Valley lost, 14-0, but that hardly bothers Stevens. He says the huge crowds--28,000 came to Anaheim Stadium to watch Edison and Fountain Valley battle for the Sunset League title--are what he remembers most. That, and how the school basically shut down on game days, such was the interest of the students and faculty.

At UCLA, Stevens played mostly backup until his final season in 1986. As a junior, he gained the starting position in the 1986 Rose Bowl after David Norrie injured a thigh muscle a few days before the game. Fans had booed Stevens in the past. Newspapers said he had gone from Air Matt to doormat. But he threw for 189 yards and a touchdown to help UCLA to a 45-28 victory over Iowa that day.

“I’ll never forget that touchdown,” he said. “It was a fade route, a 15-yard pass to Mike Sherrard. I just threw up my arms. There had been so much pressure, it was just total release.”

There were other highlights: The 284 yards passing in a 32-25 victory over ninth-ranked and previously unbeaten Arizona, a 45-25 victory over USC, and a 31-10 Freedom Bowl victory over BYU. (OK, so the Freedom Bowl victory had more to do with Gaston Green’s 266 yards rushing than Stevens’ 82 yards passing. It didn’t matter to him, he says).

After graduating in 1987, Stevens had a tryout with Kansas City, was cut, then came back during the strike season. He played only three games, and says he isn’t sure if he would do it again.

“Kansas City’s a very unionized town,” Stevens said. “There were guys carrying around shot guns in the parking lot.”

But the money was great. Stevens was paid $4,000 a week, and kept his weekly pay checks in his suitcase. After five weeks, he had cashed just one. “I bought everything I could,” he said. “When you’re only 22, four grand a week makes for a lot of beer, clothes and food.”

The next year, he returned to Los Angeles to play for the Cobras, and led the league with 50 touchdown passes. In his first game, against Pittsburgh, he threw for seven touchdowns, ran for another--and lost by 16 points.

“At first I was like, ‘Arena what? A 50-yard field? Indoors? Forget that!’ ” Stevens said. “But my dad talked me into it. I had the most fun ever in football. The season lasted only four months. Everyone loved it.”

Two years later, after a successful but uninspiring stint in real estate, Stevens relocated to Legnano, Italy, about 20 miles outside Milan. There, he became a full-fledged Frog, the official team name for the Legnano football club.

“Actually, we wore Raider uniforms,” Stevens said. “We had the Raider reputation, too. We were known as the bad boys of the league.”

With only two practices a week--from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.--and a week off after every third game, Stevens felt as if he was on a six-month paid vacation. Well, there were some mishaps. Like getting lost, which Stevens did often. Aside from a few words unfit to print, he didn’t speak Italian. And except for one other American on the team, the Frogs didn’t speak English. The huddle situation was, uh, interesting.

“We had a bunch of delay of game penalties, I’ll tell you that,” Stevens said.

He finally got comfortable translating numbers, and later a few words. At least enough so he could understand the plays. But Stevens says he never understood the Italian officials.

“We had one game--the Italian Super Bowl--where we had 280 yards in penalties,” he said. “We were facing a second and 75. The guys said, ‘What we gonna do?’ I said, ‘Well, we’re gonna go deep.’ ”

Now Stevens, who discovered a few years ago that his family’s last name is actually DiStefano, is enrolled in Italian language courses at Santa Monica College. He says he hopes to return to Italy, perhaps in some sort of business venture, football being a possibility.

But for now, much of his spare time is dedicated to the kids around the block. Especially the ones who seem to be looking for direction. Sometimes he’ll just give them a quarter to wash his car, other times he’ll sit them down for a heart-to-heart chat. Of course, the boys sometimes have their eyes on other matters.

“They’re always taking my footballs and basketballs,” Stevens said. “I’m their sporting goods store.”

And a captivating storyteller to boot.