Alexis’ Key to Success Also Fit Garage Door

If the Alexis family had a smaller garage, the Washington Huskies probably would not be in the Rose Bowl.

Washington has made it to Pasadena largely on the strength of its running game. And the strongest link in that ground game is tailback Rich Alexis. The Huskies like to say they run by committee, but Alexis is clearly the chairman of that committee.

He led the team in rushing with 738 yards, 336 more than No. 2 Willie Hurst. Alexis also led the team in touchdowns with nine while averaging 6.3 yards a carry.

Highly impressive for a freshman.

Even more impressive considering Alexis played only one full year of high school football.

Which brings us to that garage.

At 6 feet 3 and 215 pounds, Alexis is a natural athlete. But his parents, Alicia and Numa, Haitian refugees who settled in Coral Springs, Fla., were afraid he would get hurt and didn’t want him to use that talent on the football field.

So Alexis concentrated on basketball at his father’s suggestion, doing well enough to average 21 points as a junior.

But the football coaches at Pope John Paul II High weren’t willing to give up on Alexis.

They got him to play two games as a freshman and one as a junior. Alexis insisted his participation be kept secret from his parents.

It worked for awhile. Alexis had signed up by himself and kept his football equipment hidden, sometimes in a friend’s car and sometimes in the family garage.

If he saw his parents’ car when he arrived home, Alexis would sneak around the back, stash his football equipment in the garage, put on gym clothes and stroll into the house.

Finally his mother found the gear, but his father still didn’t know.

Then came spring ball before Alexis’ senior year. Persuaded to play, he rushed for 298 yards and five touchdowns.

In one game.

The pressure went up a few notches. Alexis was told a college scholarship surely would beckon if he only would play football his senior year.

He confronted his father with his secret.

No, he was told, he couldn’t play football.

“Have you got the money to send me to college?” Alexis asked his father. “I think I can get a scholarship through football.”

Reluctantly, Numa gave in and Rich soon demonstrated that his spring performance was no fluke. In his one prep season, Alexis rushed for 700 yards and 13 touchdowns. And that was in only nine games because of an ankle injury.

Alexis’ parents no longer have any doubts about their son’s career. And fortunately, they still have that garage. Alexis probably will need it to store all the trophies he is sure to collect if he keeps running the way he has.

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Both Alexis (dislocated shoulder against UCLA on Nov. 11) and Hurst (broken collarbone, also against UCLA) are ready to return to full contact in practice, and Coach Rick Neuheisel says they will play on New Year’s Day.

Neuheisel put the chances of tailback Paul Arnold of playing in the Rose Bowl at no better than “50-50” because of a lingering back problem.

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Receiver Justin Robbins is questionable for Monday’s game because of a dislocated right shoulder.

Robbins was hurt in practice Sunday when he crashed into a goal-post cover at USC’s Howard Jones Field.