With Legal and Injury Problems Behind Him, Former Hart All-American Ted Iacenda Makes a Fresh Start at New MExico and Is . . . : OUT OF THE DARKNESS

Ted Iacenda had led a charmed life when he graduated from Hart High in June 1996.

A football scholarship to USC, a Southern Section title, two section career records, two Division II player of the year awards and a reputation as a nice, well-mannered teenager.

Smart. Popular. Student body president. The kind of guy you’d want your daughter to date.

So talented and likable, the local media affectionately dubbed Iacenda “Touchdown Teddy.”

“The path out of high school seemed so bright,” Iacenda said. “It seemed like I had a future ahead of me . . . but it’s like I took a wrong turn.”

Less than a month after Iacenda finished high school, a sexual encounter with a former girlfriend in a Las Vegas hotel room and the assault accusations that followed sent hislife into a tailspin.

Throughout most of his three years at USC, Iacenda was plagued by injuries on the field and consumed by fear of possible jail time off it.

But with rape charges long dismissed and his injured shoulders surgically repaired, Iacenda is starting over at New Mexico.

New school. New team. New beginning.

“It’s nice to be a nobody, a no-name,” Iacenda said.

*

Iacenda is on the road to recovery in Albuquerque.

The 6-foot, 230-pound redshirt junior is six months into a rehabilitation he thinks will only work if he is far away from Los Angeles and the Santa Clarita Valley, where stares and whispers shadowed him since his well-publicized arrest in October 1996.

To many who knew him only casually, Iacenda instantly went from Mr. Popular to persona non grata when his former girlfriend accused him of rape four days after their sexual encounter.

Friends and family members say Iacenda, who always maintained his innocence, was devastated by the allegation.

“He tried hard not to let it affect him, but it did,” said Tim Waddell, a former Hart teammate who is a senior at West Point. “Everyone felt so bad for him. To be accused of something like that. . . .”

After the accusation, Iacenda rarely went out with friends or attended Hart football games for fear of being recognized and having to face detractors.

“He tried to hide it, but you could tell he never wanted to go out,” said Mike Jones, Iacenda’s best friend since they were teammates on the Hart junior varsity in 1992.

“He didn’t want to deal with the drama. But it tore him up inside, I could tell.”

When Iacenda did venture out to a game, he avoided the crowd and tried his best to stay incognito, wearing a cap pulled down over his eyes and a jacket pulled up around his face.

He was clearly not the same outgoing guy with the engaging drawl he picked up during his adolescent years in Texas, who greeted everyone with a big, toothy smile and a firm handshake.

That guy is gone, but certainly not forgotten.

“I’m just trying to get back what I had,” Iacenda said. “I know I can never get back those two years of football, but I’m going to make the most of these next two years [at New Mexico].

“I’m going to try to get my personality back because I lost it for so long.”

*

With the sexual assault charges weighing heavily during most of his time at USC, Iacenda was further frustrated by a series of injuries and, later, because he wasn’t utilized in the offense.

As a freshman, Iacenda caught a 24-yard pass in the Trojans’ second game against Illinois, but he injured his right shoulder and sat out the rest of the season. He was granted a medical redshirt year.

In 1997, Iacenda started four games until dislocating his left shoulder. He missed spring practice while recovering from surgery.

He had only nine carries for 38 yards and seven catches for 41 yards in 10 starts during the last two seasons.

For a guy who scored a section-record 99 touchdowns and 604 points in three seasons at Hart, playing the role of blocker and bench warmer was tough to handle.

“You don’t score 99 touchdowns in high school and go to college and not get the ball,” Jones said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Iacenda started six games last season, splitting time with Brennan Ochs and Marvin Powell III while Coach Paul Hackett waited for one of the fullbacks to emerge.

Iacenda touched the ball only four times in his last five games.

Iacenda believes he might have pigeonholed himself by meeting with Hackett after the Trojans’ first game against Purdue, when he caught only one pass for six yards.

Encouraged by friends, Iacenda tried to assure Hackett that his shoulders were strong and asked if there was something he could do to be more productive at fullback.

It was a meeting Iacenda soon regretted.

“He wasn’t excited that I came to see him at all,” Iacenda said. “He basically dismissed me and told me I had no business coming in [there].”

Hackett doesn’t recall it that way.

“I don’t remember that situation,” Hackett said. “That’s not my style. But if that’s Ted’s perception, I feel bad about that and I’m sorry.”

Iacenda said he knew after the meeting with Hackett that his days at USC were numbered. He thought about transferring to Glendale College to save a year of eligibility, but he didn’t want to quit in the middle of the season.

He requested and received a release from USC in December, before the Trojans’ loss to Texas Christian in the Sun Bowl, with the understanding that he would not transfer to another Pacific 10 school or scheduled opponent.

However, obtaining a waiver from the NCAA that would allow Iacenda immediate eligibility at another Division I school took some doing. Iacenda eventually hired a lawyer to convince the NCAA that he should be granted the waiver because of the emotional hardship resulting from the rape charge.

Although the NCAA granted the waiver, it wasn’t processed until Jan. 17, leaving little time for Iacenda to take recruiting trips and enroll in time for spring drills.

“I needed to be in spring training,” Iacenda said. “To get any type of playing time, I needed a camp to be ready.”

New Mexico gambled and won by allowing Iacenda to visit the school before he received the waiver.

Jim Fenwick, New Mexico’s offensive coordinator and former coach at Cal State Northridge and Valley College, saw Iacenda play numerous times at Hart and talked Coach Rocky Long into taking a chance on the faded high school star.

“I’ve had a little experience in waivers,” Fenwick said. “I had a gut feeling it would be granted.”

*

Two weeks after receiving his waiver, Iacenda was attending classes at New Mexico.

He knew he had made the right choice almost from the minute he stepped on campus.

“When I came out here, I felt so comfortable,” he said. “I fit right in with the guys.”

Spring drills never went better for Iacenda, who had missed most of the last two springs at USC because of injuries.

He was playing football again the way he had in high school. Only it took a few days for him to realize it.

“It had been so long since I had caught the ball and ran with it,” Iacenda said. “It almost felt unnatural because it hadn’t happened in so long.”

New Mexico coaches couldn’t be happier with Iacenda, an All-American at Hart.

“We don’t have any other guys like that,” said Blake Anderson, running backs coach. “[But] you wouldn’t know the difference between him and the next guy . . . until he starts playing.

“He has no ego. He’s just another guy who wants to win games.”

Anderson said Iacenda will play a big role in the Lobos’ run-oriented offense, operating out of a single-back formation, as a fullback in the I-formation or at slot receiver.

“He’ll be very versatile, probably the most versatile guy we have on the offensive side of the ball,” Anderson said.

Said Fenwick: “We feel like we took our program up a step because of one player. He is an individual and it is a team sport, but there’s so much more we can do with him offensively.

“He just adds an awful lot to our team in knowledge, experience and effort.”

It has been years since Iacenda had this much fun, both on and off the field. He is grateful for the second chance.

“I made good friends [at New Mexico] and it feels good to be accepted,” he said. “It feels good to be a part of a team and contribute.”

Iacenda believes everything happens for a reason, but he has no clue why life dealt him a losing hand three years ago.

But he isn’t about to spend the rest of his days trying to figure it out.

“I believe life has a way of bouncing itself out,” he said. “This is my upswing now.”