Medford Horrors Linger : College football: A year ago, seven Washington players from Southern California were injured in Oregon accident. All are back on the team.

The metal rods that run the length of Michael Steward’s right arm and leg probably will be surgically removed after this football season. The nasty scars will remain, as will the horrifying memories of an early morning a year ago.

Steward, a reserve cornerback for the University of Washington, will never know exactly why Rene Guzman-Velloso was driving the wrong way in the southbound fast lane of Interstate 5 near Medford, Ore., on Sept. 19, 1991. Police said Guzman-Velloso was intoxicated when he slammed almost head-on into a van carrying Steward, six Husky teammates from Southern California, and another Washington student.

Police concluded that Guzman-Velloso had planned to kill himself. If so, he succeeded. He died at the scene.

“I feel a lot of anger toward him,” Steward said. “From the time they told me it was a drunken driver, I couldn’t believe it. I was saying to myself, ‘If he wasn’t dead, I wish I could kill him.’ ”

The accident might have killed a third of the Huskies’ prized 1991 football recruiting class. Riding in the rented van were Steward, who graduated from Long Beach Wilson High, free safety Richard Washington of Long Beach Poly, split end Leon Neal of Paramount, split end Joel Rosborough of Long Beach Jordan, defensive end Doug Barnes of Los Angeles Verbum Dei, offensive tackle Eric Battle of Wilmington Banning, and cornerback Reggie Reser of Pasadena Muir. Also in the van was Adrian Jamison, a friend of Neal.

Despite some severe injuries, each member of what the local press has dubbed “the Medford Seven” has returned to the Huskies, who will play host to USC on Saturday. All are reserves.

The memory of the accident remains fresh. The players, none of whom were on the Washington traveling squad last season, were taking advantage of a four-day break from football. School was not in session, and their teammates were at Nebraska, preparing for a game with the Cornhuskers.

A whirlwind trip to Los Angeles sounded good. If they drove all night, spelling one another behind the wheel, they might get to spend two days with their families and friends. They rented the van and headed south.

The trip ended abruptly at 2:30 a.m. in tiny Talent, Ore., when Guzman-Velloso veered out of the northbound fast lane, crossed the grass median, and plowed into the players’ van.

“There was a semi in front of us,” recalled Rosborough, who was driving. “We just heard that semi honking. By the time we saw (Guzman-Velloso), it was too late. I tried to swerve into the grass, but it was too late.”

Battle remembers a blinding flash of headlights, and then tumbling.

“It seemed like we rolled forever,” he said. “And when we stopped rolling, we slid. There was dirt and glass in our faces, our mouths.”

When the crushed van settled on its side, all of the passengers except Steward and Washington were able to climb out. Battle, who weighs 260 pounds, grabbed a seat belt and began to hoist himself out a broken window. In the confusion, he heard Steward.

“I could hear Mike say, ‘Don’t leave me!’ That’s when I turned back and saw the van was on fire,” he said. “I told Mike to grab my pants in the back, but he grabbed my shirt and it ripped. I was trying to pull him out, and I could hear him screaming. We didn’t know he had all those broken bones.”

A state trooper extinguished the small fire. Steward, who broke the thighbone in his right leg and every bone in his right arm, was finally freed by the Jaws of Life, a hydraulic prying device.

Said Steward: “When the ambulance driver picked me up he said, ‘Oh my God!’ When he said that, I knew it would be bad for me.”

Steward spent 2 1/2 months in a wheelchair. By spring practice, he could run, but was the only player involved in the accident who didn’t participate in contact drills.

Shortly after Washington was pulled from the van, he underwent surgery. The crash left him with a broken pelvis, a cracked hip, a cracked jaw, and internal bleeding.

“This was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” said Washington, an all-state player in high school.

Recuperation was painful. Doctors told Washington he might never walk without a limp. Playing football again was a longshot. He spent the winter at home and celebrated a series of graduations: from wheelchair to walker to crutches to cane.

“I wanted to get better,” he said. “Maybe I was sick of everybody babying me. I wanted to play football again. I made a promise to myself that I would.”

Husky coaches say Washington had a spectacular spring. He was pleased with his performance, but not overjoyed.

“I felt good, but I knew I wasn’t as strong as I used to be,” he said. “As far as hitting, I can’t come with it like I used to. But it’s getting there. I’m gradually getting it back.”

It’s coming back to his teammates, too, as they try to move up an experienced and talent-rich depth chart.

Still, the flashbacks linger.

“I was watching ‘Rescue 911’ with my dad and sister,” Washington said. “There was this car accident. It was a white convertible Rabbit. There were these two guys in there. The car was burned up. I could sort of smell what was going on. I said, ‘Dad, do you smell that?’ ”

The Medford Seven say the accident has formed a special bond among them. Each feels somewhat uneasy in a car. And each said he now flinches at oncoming headlights.

“We always find ourselves talking about it,” Washington said. “We sort of hang out together. Every time we talk about it, something different that I didn’t know comes up.

“When I see pictures of that van, I don’t know how I survived, how any of us survived.”