Nebraska’s Petko Learns to Ease Pain as Well as Inflict It : Football: Former Servite linebacker spent summer counseling teen-age alcohol abusers.

LINCOLN, Neb. —  Mike Petko often talks of his mean, nasty reputation as a linebacker at the University of Nebraska.

He’ll tell you he has learned “the real meaning of pain” since coming to Nebraska three years ago. He says other players on the field ask, “ ‘Who is that dirty, rotten guy?’ ”

But this summer, Petko, a former standout at Servite High School, was talking a little different game.

He and fellow Nebraska linebacker Pat Tyrance landed internships this summer working with dual-diagnosed patients and counseling teen-agers on alcohol and substance abuse at a hospital in Omaha.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do this summer,” Petko said, “but Dr. Jack Stark, our team psychologist, asked me if something opened up with the intern program, would I be interested.”

A few weeks later Tyrance and Petko were in the program.

They began by working with doctors then with dual-diagnosed patients--manic depressives and obsessive personalities. By the end of the summer, Tyrance was counseling people involved with pharmaceuticals and Petko with the teen-age alcohol abuse.

Petko saw a different side to life.

“It’s an eye-opener,” Petko said. “When you learn more about the world, when you learn more about how the mind works, you learn more about how your mind works too,” Petko said. “You learn to use resources at your fingertips to get the problems solved and get things done.”

He’s also expected to be resourceful on the football field this fall. He’s one of seven returning starters on defense after earning all-Big Eight honorable mention last season. He started nine games as a sophomore, averaging four tackles per game.

He missed two games last season because of strained knee ligaments he suffered in the Cornhuskers’ 27-21 loss to Colorado. But after undergoing arthroscopic surgery in November, he came back to start in the Huskers’ Fiesta Bowl game Jan. 1 against Florida State.

Tests show Petko has never been in better shape for a football season than this year. He improved his performances in the 10-yard dash, the agility drill and the shuttle run.

“I keep finding subtitles to my success, but when I got together with Jim Kelly, a guy who I grew up with in California, things started to improve,” Petko said.

Kelly, 27, who managed a fitness center in Orange, was hired as an assistant strength coach at Nebraska last spring.

“Jim has been a real positive in my career,” Petko said. “I met him after my senior year in high school, when I was working at his fitness center.

“He has helped me a lot with my training. I got faster and stronger when I worked with him just before I came here.”

Petko, a junior, changed his jersey number this season from 37 to 99, the number he wore at Servite.

“When I first came here I wanted to change my identity,” Petko said. “In high school I was an individual, going for a scholarship. But in college, I wanted to be more of a team player, so I changed my number (to 37) and my image with it.

“Now that I have the team concept in my mind, I want to add a nastier element to my game. That’s why I went back to No. 99.”

Petko also has made some other changes. He’s engaged to be married next summer, and he plans to play baseball this spring.

“I’m 100% serious about baseball,” said Petko, an all-Southern Section selection at designated hitter during his junior year at Servite.

Todd Gragnano, a former quarterback at Los Alamitos High School, will sit out his freshman year at Nebraska as a redshirt along with former Esperanza lineman Brenden Stai.

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne said Tuesday he decided not to redshirt former Servite running back Derek Brown, who sat out last season after failing to meet academic requirements under Proposition 48. Osborne instead redshirted Calvin Jones, a Parade Magazine All-American from Omaha (Neb.) Central High School.

“Derek has already been out of football a year and it would be tough for him to be out two years straight,” Osborne said. “Both Derek and Calvin are excellent players. It would seem to be in their best interests, and to the team’s, that they not be on the same terms with length of eligibility.”