Donahue Found His Own Insurance : UCLA: While watching his daughter cheerleading at high school game, he discovered successor to Maddox at quarterback.

In 1989, Terry Donahue went to a high school football game between Agoura and Newbury Park.

That’s not unusual for a football coach, but Donahue wasn’t there to watch the players. His daughter, Nicole, was a cheerleader for Agoura.

Even so, he was impressed with Newbury Park’s quarterback, Wayne Cook, and later told his recruiting coordinator, Bill Rees, to check out the young man.

That was fortunate for both Cook and UCLA. Cook is the Bruins’ quarterback because Tommy Maddox elected to forgo his junior and senior seasons and was recently selected in the first round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos.

Cook is a redshirt sophomore, his experience limited to eight plays in games against Arizona and Washington State last year. He has yet to throw his first pass in a college game.

Yet, he is UCLA’s most experienced quarterback. Rob Walker is a redshirt freshman, and two incoming freshman in the fall, Ryan Fien, from Royal High in Simi Valley, and Scott Fitterer of Kennedy High in Seattle, don’t figure to play.

Cook didn’t anticipate that he would play regularly until 1993, figuring that Maddox would complete his junior season before leaving.

His reaction to his sudden promotion? “It’s kind of mixed,” Cook said. “At first, it was, ‘Now it’s my turn,’ and an opportunity to play for three years instead of two. But I’m also disappointed Tommy left because he’s my friend.”

Even though Cook is inexperienced, he has had the benefit of three spring practices.

He suffered a knee injury in a summer high school all-star game in 1989 and didn’t enroll at UCLA until the winter quarter in 1990. He was allowed to participate in spring practice without losing any eligibility.

Last year, he got most of the work in scrimmages during the spring while the coaching staff protected Maddox from injury.

During UCLA’s spring practice, which ended Saturday, Cook had a different role. He got a crash course to prepare for next season. “Wayne has had a good spring and has worked hard,” Donahue said. “Every day out there he grows because of the experience factor. I wish, though, that we had 40 days of spring practice instead of 15.”

Cook, like Maddox, is a rangy quarterback. He stands 6 feet 3 and weighs 200 pounds.

“He has a strong arm and good mobility,” Donahue said. “He appears to be a loose guy and doesn’t seem to be bothered by pressure. Of course, he hasn’t had any pressure at this stage.”

UCLA has 12 starting players back, six each on offense and defense. Last year’s team had a 9-3 record, including a 6-3 victory over Illinois in the John Hancock Bowl.

Before Maddox chose the pros, UCLA and Washington were generally considered co-favorites for the Pacific 10 championship in 1992.

Now, though, UCLA is a question mark.

Cook is aware of the pressure that will be on him.

“There’s all the talk, ‘Tom is gone and there goes UCLA,’ ” Cook said, smiling. “The media is going to have a good time with this and they--as they always do--will be trying to put the pressure on the quarterback. If we win, I’ll get some credit and, if we do bad, it will be that UCLA has lost Maddox and has a young quarterback who hasn’t played.”

Curiously, Cook is older than Maddox. He turned 21 April 13. Maddox won’t be 21 until September.

Cook passed for 1,400 yards and 13 touchdowns as a junior at Newbury Park. He missed three games because of a broken thumb his senior season but still threw for 1,200 yards and eight touchdowns, with only three interceptions.

“The (college) recruiting just stopped after I hurt my thumb,” he said, adding that only UCLA among Pac-10 schools maintained an interest.

Cook’s father, Ken, was a lineman and tight end for the University of Arizona, and was the school’s most valuable player in 1962. He also was Wayne’s high school football coach.

“If your father is the coach, he’ll be harder on you because he doesn’t want anyone else to think he’s playing favorites,” Wayne said.

Donahue said that UCLA has not modified the offense for Cook, that he’s getting the whole package. And Cook said he has taken “a big leap forward” in the learning process.

“You know Coach Donahue kind of stumbled on to me,” he said.