Waiting for a Friend : Football: Paraclete High players put their faith in strength of Brant Theurer, a teammate who remains in a coma more than a month after he was ejected from a car.

It is the second week of two-a-day practices, but the Paraclete High football team appears anything but weary as the players dress for an afternoon practice in 100-degree heat.

Inside the locker room, they are joking and teasing one another in more than a dozen different conversations when someone asks the location of Brant Theurer’s locker.

Without hesitation, 35 heads turn and 35 index fingers point to a caged cubical at the end of the horseshoe-shaped set of stalls.

For a moment, there is dead silence as the Paraclete players’ thoughts turn to Theurer, a team captain, who has been lying in a coma at Northridge Hospital Medical Center since a July 29 automobile accident.

Theurer, a 5-foot-7, 200-pound senior who was to move from center to fullback this fall, was the glue that kept the Spirits together and the driving force behind their bid to get back to the playoffs; in 1994 they qualified for the postseason for the first time in 11 years.

And while Theurer, 17, battles for his life, he remains the glue and the force at Paraclete.

“He acted like a captain from the start,” wide receiver Ryan Johnson said of Theurer, a unanimous choice to be one of two Paraclete captains. “He motivated us.”

Johnson, who calls Theurer his best friend, usually speaks of his teammate in the present tense. Every Spirit player expects Theurer to regain consciousness and perhaps rejoin the team to watch, at least, games from the sidelines.

Until then, Theurer’s dressing cage remains locked, with his equipment and No. 44 jersey inside. To honor him, Paraclete players will wear stickers on their helmets depicting a cross and Theurer’s initials, starting with Friday night’s game against St. Bonaventure at Antelope Valley College.

“I’m not into the memorial stuff, because I think he’s going to be a vibrant young man still,” Coach Steve Hagerty said. “I think it’s a matter of time. He could be a moment away [from regaining consciousness]. And we have to believe that.”

*

Theurer (pronounced tyre) suffered head injuries when he was ejected from a vehicle that strayed off Highway 14 near Acton, slammed into a hillside and flipped 2 1/2 times before stopping.

Theurer and three Paraclete teammates were returning from a summer passing-league tournament at L.A. Baptist when the crash occurred at approximately 4:30 p.m. Theurer, tight end John Dagata and wide receiver Vinny Pagan had fallen asleep after competing for two long days in the blistering July heat.

Running back Lance Austin, who was driving the 1990 Chevrolet Blazer, fell asleep at the wheel.

“I was fine, and the next thing I know, I was out of it,” Austin said. “I was tired, but I didn’t feel like I was going to fall asleep.”

Austin, Pagan and Dagata suffered minor injuries and were treated and released from a local hospital that day. Theurer was not wearing a seat belt.

His three teammates found Theurer unconscious, his body spread onto the shoulder of the freeway. Austin started sobbing.

“Brant is usually so full of emotion, and he was just lying there,” Austin said. “You couldn’t do anything for him.

“I felt guilty, like I let all these guys down.”

*

Several teammates already had arrived at the Theurer residence to go swimming, including Johnson, Theurer’s friend since age 7.

“Whenever somebody is not where they are supposed to be, you wonder, ‘What if something happened?’ ” Johnson said. “But it always ends up being OK. This time it wasn’t.

“I said, ‘Why Brant? Why him? I don’t know. . . . I’ve never had a better friend than Brant.”

Theurer was transported by helicopter to the Northridge hospital, where he was put on a respirator. Doctors told his parents he probably would not live through the night.

But doctors since have discovered that Theurer’s injury was centered not in his brain stem, as originally thought, but in the cerebellum, at the base of the brain. That means Theurer has a better chance of recovering his motor skills, personality, cognitive thought and memory.

Theurer has made progress. He moves his arms and responds when pressure is applied to his limbs. His heart rate increases when he hears people speak to him. And last week he opened his eyes for the first time.

The Theurers leave daily updates on their telephone answering machine. Teammates are among the most faithful callers.

Many of them have made the more than 120-mile round trip to the Valley to visit Theurer in the hospital.

“One week I went all but one day,” said Dagata, who said he has made 20 visits. “You talk to him and try to make him wake up.”

The first week after the accident, shaken teammates flocked to the hospital, where they were actually comforted by Theurer’s parents.

“I was crying like a baby when I felt like I should have been comforting them,” Pagan said. “But they’ve been the strongest of all of us.”

Said Mike Theurer, Brant’s father: “I appreciate them saying that. They’re a good bunch of kids. It’s sort of a privilege to know them.”

The Paraclete players say it’s a privilege to know Brant Theurer.

He has a 3.84 grade-point average, a tremendous passion for football and a quiet but relentless work ethic. Teammates say they drew inspiration from Theurer long before his injury.

“You call him up and say, ‘You want to work out?’ He’d say, ‘Yeah. Let’s go right now,’ ” Dagata said. “He’d be there before anybody.”

Said Pagan: “He gets along with everybody on the team. And there’s all different guys. Brant is good about approaching everybody. Not only that, but talking about how good they could be and how much they could help the team.”

A year ago, Hagerty noticed that nobody could bring down Theurer during tackling drills. He approached Theurer, telling him that if he could improve his speed and develop pass-catching skills he could play fullback his senior year.

Theurer went to work, and by spring practice Hagerty had a new starting fullback.

“He considered it a real move up--like a promotion to vice president of a company,” Hagerty said. “He’s a Tom Rathman-type guy. A real power plug.

“He’s still on the roster. He’s still got his locker. I’m not going to say, ‘Let’s win one for the Gipper.’ The best thing we can do [in his absence] is be a class act out on the field.”

Hagerty and others believe Theurer will soon come out of his coma because he is strong and never gives up.

“He was not expected to live past the first evening,” Mike Theurer said of his son. “We give Coach Hagerty a lot of credit and thanks. If he didn’t push those kids so hard, Brant wouldn’t have been in such great shape, and he would have been much worse off.”

*

During the spring, players filled out questionnaires. In it, Hagerty asked them to list their greatest inspiration. Most of them listed their parents, but a few of them named Theurer.

“A lot of the team works harder now,” Austin said. “We’re devoted to him.”

Said Dagata: “Every time I hit somebody, I see flashes of Brant. I don’t want to let him down.”

Johnson, who cares enough about Theurer that he included him on dates with his girlfriend, has taken on some of Theurer’s chores. Each Saturday, Johnson mows and edges the Theurers’ lawn while hoping and waiting for a speedy, healthy recovery.

All of the Spirits hope that a dream Pagan had a few nights ago is a sign of Theurer’s imminent return. In the dream, Pagan hears a knock on his front door, opens it and sees Theurer.

“Let’s go, man! Let’s go,” Theurer tells Pagan.

Said Pagan: “He’ll be back.”