Oliver Finds Refuge on Field : College football: Three years after deaths of his parents, USC safety still feels the pain.

There has been a lot of talk this week about pressure at USC football practices.

A lot of pressure is expected to be put on the Trojans’ defense Saturday by Oregon State’s wishbone offense.

Pressure? In a football game?

Jason Oliver, USC free safety, allowed himself a little smile.

Oliver knows pressure. He has a doctorate in pressure.

And only now, three years after his world fell out from under him, is he beginning to feel like a normal person.

Here’s what happened to Oliver’s world in the space of a month in 1990, when he was a USC freshman:

Sept. 22--His mother, Juanda, died of cancer.

Oct. 15--Oliver and teammates Willie McGinest and Michael Jones were charged with battery and false imprisonment when a female USC student accused them of sexual assault. All three were later acquitted.

Oct. 18--His father, Marvin, died of tuberculosis and AIDS-related complications.

“It was an awful thing for anyone to go through, let alone a 19-year-old kid who’d just gone away to school, who had never even paid his own bills,” recalled Pat Preston, his coach at Bakersfield High. “All of a sudden, he’s dealing with funeral directors, probate lawyers, creditors, real estate people. . . .

“Jason grew up in a hurry. And he came through it. The Bakersfield community gathered around him, and he had a lot of help at SC.”

Oliver is just now liquidating the last of his parents’ property, which included four rental houses.

His father, Marvin Oliver, a Kern County sheriff’s officer, left no will. And because Jason has a younger brother, Clinton, who was 9 at the time of his parents’ deaths, the probate process wound slowly through courts.

“My wife and I have helped Jason through all this,” Preston said. “We got him a probate lawyer right after his folks died and we’ve kept track of everything for him.”

Today, Clinton Oliver, 12, lives in Bakersfield with a cousin, DeWayne Cheadle, and his wife.

“Clinton and I talk every Sunday,” Jason Oliver said the other day. “He’s doing well, but sometimes he goes into a shell and I kind of worry. I take time to explain to him that he is loved, and my cousin does, too.”

Still, even for Jason Oliver, some of the shock remains. He talked of his mother, who was a real estate title officer.

“I knew how sick my mom was,” he said. “She’d been diagnosed with cancer for a few years. So her dying wasn’t a real shock. But while I knew my dad hadn’t been feeling well, I didn’t know how sick he was. That was really a shock.

“And I didn’t know anything about him being HIV-positive. Someone else came up to me after the funeral and told me. I was told my mom had become HIV-positive through a blood transfusion, and she’d given it to my dad.

“It was all hard to handle. I went back to school and I played football. (He started his first game for USC two days after his father’s death, making four tackles.) The games weren’t hard. They were kind of a release.

“But my grades suffered. I’d try to study at night. But I’d look at a book and it got so easy to just put my head down and just go to sleep.

“My teammates were great, and so was Coach Preston, and a lot of other Bakersfield people. They all helped. But, you know, you still have the pain.

“Stephon Pace, Willie McGinest and Erroll Small (USC teammates) were all great. I spent time with Willie’s parents at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I spent two weeks the following summer with Erroll’s family.”

Oliver says probably the most painful aspect of 1990 was the timing of his father’s death.

“My dad didn’t live to see me cleared (of the sexual assault charge),” he said. “That really hurt.”

Preston said that the Oliver brothers’ immediate financial futures are secure.

“They’ll come out OK,” he said. “Clinton will have money for college. Jason now owns the family house, which is being leased.

“Jason was a mature kid before any of this happened, and he really hasn’t changed. He expresses himself better, maybe.”

Preston thinks Oliver’s competitiveness might have pulled him through his ordeal.

“He had great physical skills when he played for me, but so did a lot of other kids,” Preston said.

“But the kids who go on to excel in college ball need to have that kind of personality where they can raise that competitiveness to the next level. Jason had that. That’s the one thing you never know. This is a very competitive kid.”

Oliver thrived on competition after the double tragedy.

As a freshman cornerback, he started five of USC’s last seven games, had three interceptions--returning two for touchdowns--and made 18 tackles.

He says the excitement of a big football play hushes his world.

“I returned an interception 34 yards for a touchdown against UCLA at the Rose Bowl my freshman year, and I was conscious of the big stadium, the big crowd, before the play,” he said. “But when I caught the ball, everything got silent. It was like I was in a silent movie. But the second I got into the end zone, I could hear the sound of the crowd again.”