COLLEGE FOOTBALL: STREETS TO CLEATS : MCCARTER HAS CHANGED FROM `GANG-BANGER' TO GANG TACKLER.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

DeAndre McCarter sat in the corner of a juvenile-hall recreation room in Fillmore during the summer of 1997, wondering if his future had slipped away with one bad decision.

``I was fed up with myself at that point,'' said McCarter, who was four months into an 18-month sentence for an armed robbery he committed at age 17. ``My mom was so disappointed that she wouldn't even come to see me.

``Then this man named Mr. (Walter) Tubbs from Camp Kilpatrick came in, and he walked over to me and said, `You look like you play ball.' We talked some more and he asked me if I wanted to come play football and serve my sentence at Camp Kilpatrick.

``Football was always my first love, but because I had so many bad things in my personal life, it got pushed away. I wanted to get back on the football field.''

Football, the only stable aspect of McCarter's life, returned at Kilpatrick and helped him set his priorities. Now, two years later, McCarter is working his way toward a college scholarship as a linebacker at Moorpark College.

McCarter started the first three games but suffered a sprained ankle that also caused some Achilles' tendon pain. McCarter, a freshman, is now healthy and anxious to restart.

``I'm just out here working toward college, that's my goal,'' McCarter said. ``To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be at a JC, but I'm making the best of it.''

McCarter grew up in South Central Los Angeles, without a father and with relatives who led him in the wrong direction.

His uncle, Jesse Burton, got McCarter interested in Pop Warner football at age 9, but even sports wasn't enough to make him resist the temptation of the streets.

``My cousins and my older brother were involved in gangs,'' McCarter said. ``I was the baby, so they kind of raised me and raised me in that lifestyle, so I got to be a gang-banger too.''

McCarter stopped playing football in junior high when his grades suffered, and before his freshman year the family moved to West Covina and McCarter enrolled at Nogales High.

Ineligibility hit him in his sophomore year following a transfer to West Covina High. The elimination of football from his life meant more time in the streets.

McCarter's self-described ``knucklehead'' activity came to a head in the summer of 1997, when he was arrested for holding up a video-rental store.

``It was with a couple buddies of mine and it was foolish,'' McCarter said. ``They wanted to do it for the money, so you could say the words peer pressure; I guess that's what it was.

``It was real foolish of me, because I was young and there wasn't too much I was worried about.''

McCarter's turnaround came after his transfer to Kilpatrick. In a structured environment for the first time in his life, McCarter thrived on and off the field.

``That was the first thing that struck me, how bright he was,'' Kilpatrick coach Sid Ware said. ``A lot of kids that come in have reading-comprehension and writing problems, but he was definitely above average.

``He told us that he had some organized football experience, not much, but that he was willing to learn.''

McCarter started at offensive guard in his first game at Kilpatrick and made an immediate impact. In a game against Montclair Prep later in the season, he caught the attention of the Mounties' coaching staff.

Coaches from both sides talked, and McCarter made it a goal to be accepted to Montclair Prep.

``He always said that if he could get into Montclair, that he would make it, that he could change his life,'' Ware said. ``Mr. Tubbs and I looked into getting him in there and eventually we did.''

The decision was easy for McCarter.

``I talked to my mom and told her that it would get me away from the streets,'' McCarter said. ``I wouldn't be around the same crowd and maybe I could make something of my life. So I moved out of the ghetto.''

McCarter also moved into the spotlight at Montclair Prep. Coach George Giannini remembers McCarter as a ``good student, strong, quick and a great hitter.''

Colleges came to watch McCarter, but there was the matter of the SAT. He fell 20 points short on his first attempt. He took the test again last June and passed, but scholarship opportunities had already passed.

``Everybody told me to take the test earlier, but my self-esteem was a little down,'' McCarter said. ``I got accepted to Arizona, but there's no way I could afford it without a scholarship.''

McCarter, who now lives in Simi Valley with teammate Keith Collins, looks forward to the day when he can get a second chance at college, just as he did in life.

``Michael Black came out of Kilpatrick and one day before the 1998 Rose Bowl he and Keyshawn Johnson came down to camp and talked to us individually,'' McCarter said. ``Keyshawn told me I had to get my mind right if I didn't want to continue on the same route.

``Michael Black, when he left Kilpatrick he didn't go back to football, he went back to his homies, and he got locked up again. It took him two times to get his mind right, but it's not going to take two times for me.

``That Kilpatrick experience made me understand how meaningful life is. There is nothing nice behind those bars and it's a place no man wants to be. There's nothing like having your freedom and I'm not going to take that for granted.''

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PHOTO (color) Moorpark College linebacker DeAndre McCarter says he has put gang life and crime behind him and intends to win a college scholarship.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer