Last November, over Thanksgiving weekend, a group of south Sacramento Raiders coaches and parents drove 28 squirmy 9-, 10- and 11-year-olds to Las Vegas for a national football tournament.

Some 17 years earlier - before he used money from drug sales to buy a car as a 12-year-old, before a bullet took out his lung at 16 - Clifford McDowell had scored five touchdowns at this same Vegas tournament.

Now he was back as an assistant coach.

These days, the once-skinny running back boasts a little plumpness around his middle. His arms are tattooed with gang mottos and the names of his seven children; his chest bears the round scars of bullet wounds. Though Clifford is reserved, his smile, when it comes, is open and generous. His passion for football has never faded.

Their first night in a Vegas rental house, Clifford gathered the Junior PeeWee players together in their cartoon pajamas and T-shirts to tell them the story of his life.

I've been shot five times, he told them in his low, raspy voice. I've been to the penitentiary. I blew my chance at football.

"I messed up," he said. "Please don't be like me."

Fifteen years have passed since Clifford and his teammates posed for their team photo. In the fall of 1992, they were 12 and 13 years old, their faces filled with possibility.

Because most of them were African American boys growing up in rough neighborhoods, they faced poor odds of graduating from high school and high odds of going to jail. The specter of premature death hung over them.

Now, those who survived are in their late 20s, largely past the dangerous years. According to a landmark 2001 surgeon general's report, young men's participation in violence peaks during late adolescence.

Many players on the 1992 team managed to dodge serious trouble. Even those, like Clifford, who got swallowed by the streets - and saw bullets and prison eclipse friends' lives - are settling down. They have families and jobs and, in a few cases, mortgages. After so much despair, many have reached a new point of hope.

In one form or another, however, tragedy touched the lives of the 35 boys on the 1992 south Sacramento Raiders Junior Midgets team: At least three are dead. At least 17 have been incarcerated. One, David Towner Jr. - No. 30 - was sentenced in June to 16 years in prison for killing his girlfriend.

At least five dropped out of high school completely. Yet, educationally, the team ultimately beat the national odds. Twenty-one of the 26 players who shared their stories with The Bee - or whose families spoke on their behalf - eventually earned high school diplomas, another three GEDs. Eleven graduated or are on track to graduate from four-year colleges, community colleges or trade schools.

None made it to the NFL, although the younger brother of one, Keith Lewis, does play safety for the 49ers. But five of the players contacted by The Bee played college football. Three more played semipro.

Four have served in the military. Two are teaching in the public schools they attended as kids. One is a youth correctional counselor. One is a sheriff's deputy. One sells cellular phones.

Some survived by leaving their old neighborhoods. Others now prosper in the communities where they grew up.

Of the five teammates whose lives were examined most closely by The Bee, one is dead, one is an attorney and three have worked, in recent years, to turn their lives around. Clifford McDowell, now 28, is among those three.

After spending his teen years in and out of juvenile hall and jail, Clifford tired of selling rock cocaine and watching acquaintances gun each other down. As a father to seven - or, as he says, "hella kids" - he had a reason to stick around.

Someone, after all, needed to teach them to play football.

One Saturday last October, Clifford and his fellow coaches herded their players - including Clifford's son and nephew - into a wide, grassy swath of Nicholas Park, just off 47th Avenue.

That morning, the coaches were revved up: the most important game of the regular season was scheduled for the following day. The Berkeley Cougars were good, and the Raiders faced a real prospect of losing.

The Bee's Jocelyn Wiener can be reached at (916) 321-1967 or jwiener@sacbee.com.