Physical and Spiritual

FIVE months ago Jerry Pierce served as a "short-term missionary" to teenagers, prisoners, and Indians in the mountains of Guatemala. This Saturday he will be corralling Ivy League ball-carriers and pass-receivers attempting to advance against the Dartmouth defensive unit. Pierce is a co-captain of the Big Green's centennial football team and, some observers believe, the finest linebacker in the Ivy circuit. He is also a Spanish major who spent six months of this year in Latin America. "That was probably the greatest experience of my life," says Pierce, a senior from East Orange, New Jersey.

Pierce participated in a foreign study program during the winter term, studying Mexican civilization, literature, and art from January to March in Puebla, a community two hours from Mexico City. He spent the next two and a half months in Guatemala and then two weeks in Nicaragua as a member of the Gospel Outreach Program, which he learned about through the Dartmouth Area Christian Fellowship. It was the off-term work with church youth, prisoners, and Indian groups on the outskirts of Guatemala City that he found most rewarding.

His life away from the United States was not devoid of football, however. "Football is growing in popularity in Mexico," Pierce observed during a break in practice. "They're really big on it." He tells how he sent a photograph of himself in uniform to the family he was going to live with in Mexico. "Their son was very excited. He wanted the football player to live with the family." Pierce also got to watch last January's Super Bowl game in Spanish, of course. The 5-foot 11-inch, 210-pounder didn't let his physical or mental skills deteriorate during the two terms away from the Hanover campus. He lifted weights and ran in both Mexico and Guatemala, taking advantage of the two- mile elevation. "I'm in my best shape ever, in every way physically, spiritually, and mentally," he noted.

During the middle of June, Pierce returned to New Jersey. Each morning he worked in a newspaper-candy store. His afternoons included two hours of lifting weights at the local Y.M.C.A. and a trip to the East Orange High School stadium where he did sprints, stretching and agility exercises, and rope-jumping. At night he got together with former East Orange players at meetings of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an organization he helped found during his high school years. "I've really benefited from the organization," he explained. "It's rearranged my priorities and my motivational forces for playing football."

Pierce will co-captain the 1980 team with Dave Shula, a senior split end. Pierce concedes that since he and Shula lead the team in its daily stretching exercises there was more incentive to work harder before the start of the grueling pre-season double- practice sessions in late August and early September. Double sessions ran from August 29 to September 10. A typical day would find the team eating breakfast together at Thayer Hall at 7:15 a.m. Players arrive at the locker room about 8:30 to get their equipment and be taped prior to their 9:10 appearance on the practice field. The morning session is broken down into 26 five-minute periods and lasts until 11:40 a.m. These periods, interrupted only by water breaks, include such things as personal work, running and stretching, agilities, bag and feet drills, non-tackling scrimmages between the offensive and defensive units, and teaching segments. The team breaks for lunch but returns to the football office at 2:30 for 20-minute meetings. Then it's back to the field from 3:10 to 5:30 for another 26 periods. After dinner, there's an hour meeting from 7:15 to 8:15 to review what will be done the next day. It's lights out for the players at 10 o'clock.

"The most exhausting times are after the first practice and on the third day, the first day of pad practice. That is really exhausting," explained Pierce. "You really get in shape quickly with those 20 extra pounds. It's almost like running in a sauna."

Pierce is a hard-nosed competitor whose number 90 uniform has been conspicuous on the field when Dartmouth has been on defense during the past two years. Last fall he was the leading tackier of the team with 115 unassisted tackles and 69 assists. He was an all-Ivy first-team linebacker in 1979 and twice was named to the E.C.A.C. all- star team during the season. He was named Dartmouth's outstanding defensive player both as a sophomore and junior, and, as a sophomore, had 55 total tackles plus one interception. He co-captained the 1977 Pea Green squad with Shula and led that freshman team in tackles despite missing three games with injuries. "It's a matter of instinct," Pierce says of his defensive skills. "It's just a question of being able to sense where the ball is and where it's going to be. This instinct comes with repetition and experience."

He is now in his eleventh year of organized football. Pierce began as a ten- year-old sixth grader in a league in East Orange back in 1969. He was captain of both the football and baseball teams at East Orange and was named a high school all-America in football. He played both ways in high school, being a lineman on offense. "They put everybody in two possible positions at Dartmouth," said Pierce. "Since I was too small to play offensive line in college they put me in as a fullback. They sure got me out of there fast."

Pierce's first contact with the Dart- mouth football program came when he met assistant coach Rick Taylor, now head coach of the Boston University football team, at a banquet for the top 100 athletes in New Jersey. "All I knew about Dart- mouth was that it was a school up in the mountains and it was very cold," he ad- mitted. Pierce's high school coach encouraged him to fill out the application. There was a mix-up on his application and a reluctance to come to Hanover because he was spending every weekend visiting other colleges. He finally visited the Dartmouth campus, however. "It was a beautiful day in March once I got here," he remembers. "The campus really impressed me, but the people impressed me even more. One thing that stands out is a pickup game of basketball that I got involved In. After the game I noticed that there had been five blacks and five whites mixed on the two teams. I hadn't noticed that while we were playing. It was beautiful the way they got along. That really impressed me. When I went home I said I was going to Dartmouth."

There is optimism about the chances of this year's team. "I think it has the potential to be one of the best teams of all time if we can stay away from injuries," Pierce said. "This team certainly has the best attitude of any team I've seen in my years at Dartmouth. Everyone is willing to work to be successful. We know we have the potential, but we must work and work and work each day to build on that potential."

Pierce would like to go to law school after he graduates, but acknowledges a professional football opportunity would interest him. "I think I would," he said. "If I was drafted or offered a tryout, I'd like to go out and see how I hold up against some of the best in the country."

Dartmouth linebacker Jerry Pierce, number 90, foils a Holy Cross pass attempt.