Hinds Finds His Calling at USC

The first phone call Rocky Hinds received on a night that otherwise might have been one of the most disappointing of his life was the last one he expected.

USC football Coach Pete Carroll was on the line telling Hinds not to worry, that the Trojans weren’t going to give up on him.

A few hours earlier, Hinds, a highly touted quarterback from Playa del Rey St. Bernard High, left a preseason scrimmage with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Such injuries once spelled doom for football careers, so imagine Hinds’ surprise to hear Carroll. His most stressful moment eased by a comforting call.

“It surprised me,” Hinds said. “When I first got hurt I was worried, but that was reassuring.”

Sure enough, the college recruiters kept calling. A serious knee injury wasn’t enough to scare them away from a 6-foot-5, 220-pound strong-armed passer who had also won a Southern Section 100-meter title.

A few weeks ago, Hinds narrowed his options to USC and Nebraska: some choice considering he didn’t play a down during his senior year. Wednesday, the first day of the official signing period, Hinds signed with USC.

Hinds wowed scouts last summer in camp and combine performances, rocketing up the national recruiting lists. He passed for 1,642 yards and 15 touchdowns and rushed for 495 yards and five touchdowns as a junior.

By that time, though, the Trojans were already watching. Hinds lives less than a mile from USC. He grew up a Trojan fan and has been attending summer camps there since he started high school.

“We saw Rocky in an early camp when he was probably between his freshman and sophomore year, and it was just obvious,” Carroll said Wednesday. “Such stature at a young age, so tall and [with] natural skills and really fast, which was all verified in his track season last year ... a great athlete with a big arm.”

It also helped Hinds that a torn ACL today is no longer considered a career-threatening injury.

“Nowadays if the athlete has an experienced physician and performs the necessary rehabilitation, the recovery is consistently positive,” said Dr. Keith Feder, a Manhattan Beach-based physician who performed the surgery on Hinds.

Feder, who estimates he has performed about 1,500 ACL operations, said there is a 98% success rate. Rehabilitation work is the key. Hinds had physical therapy two hours a day, five days a week for two months following his Sept. 18 surgery. Now, he goes three days a week for one- or two-hour sessions.

“The first couple of weeks was painful,” Hinds said. “Going up and down stairs -- that hurt.”

Not as much as missing his senior season.

The phone call from Carroll and advice from Feder assured Hinds that his career wasn’t in jeopardy, but he had high hopes that St. Bernard would win a section title.

He said the only time he cried was when he told teammates he couldn’t play.

“They were all asking ‘Are you cool? Are you going to play?’ ” Hinds said. “That was the hardest part.”

Hinds made no secret about wanting to attend USC. He had all but committed in December, but when former Oakland Raider coach Bill Callahan took the job at Nebraska, he came after Hinds hard.

Still, it was no surprise Wednesday that Hinds decided to return a favor.

After all, signing day is among the most stressful days of the year for college coaches -- so Hinds’ first phone call was to Carroll.