You could call it a nationwide pregame pep rally. With plenty of fanfare and energy, seven Princeton area residents are among the 10,000 individuals participating in the Olympic Torch relay, whipping up interest in the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, Ga. as the flame is carried nationwide over hill and dale, river and plain.

Among those who will help bring the torch on its 15,000-mile journey to signal the centennial opening of the Games are former Olympians Christopher Jacobs, Michael Teti and Donald Beer, along with Olympic hopeful and Princeton University student Scott Anderson, and area residents Betsy Hoover, Barbara Johnson and Kathryn Gargiullo. Jacobs, Beer and Johnson live in Princeton while Gargiullo and Teti, Princeton University's rowing coach, live in Plainsboro. Hoover, president of the Princeton YWCA, is a resident of Hopewell Township.

"It's a way to share the Olympic spirit with as many people as possible," says Gargiullo, who was nominated by a Hartford, Conn. friend. "It's something to rally around," says Jacobs, who hopes his newborn daughter will cheer him on with his wife and parents.

"It's an honor, really," adds Teti, who has been involved in three previous Olympics. After watching the torch relay through Toronto, Canada on its way to Calgary in 1988, Teti knew he would jump at the chance to be part of the effort if it came his way.

Hoover, on the other hand, was surprised by her selection. Nominated by her husband for her community service efforts, she hopes her participation will inspire others to get involved with their communities.

The Olympic flame left Athens, Greece more than a month ago and has been heading east from Los Angeles ever since on an 84-day marathon. On June 18 it will flash through Princeton, a month shy of the official opening of the 26th Summer Games July 19.

The flame is slated to enter Princeton by bicycle via Montgomery Township's portion of Route 206 at about 6:20 p.m. Those selected to be torchbearers won't be certain of which part of the relay they will cover until two weeks prior to their run; it could happen that those selected from the Princeton area will be assigned their stint (up to one kilometer or .62 miles) somewhere else in New Jersey.

When their moment of glory comes, however, they will take the torch they have been given to use (and may purchase a replica of as a memento for $250) and light it from the flame of the previous torchbearer. A truck with the official flame follows the relay through its entire journey to make sure nature's elements or flukes of fate do not blow it out. To get the feel of what it will be like to carry the torch, the relay runners were advised to train carrying a baseball bat.

When the flame comes to Princeton's borders, the relay will switch from bicycle to walking or running. By 6:32 p.m., it will make a brief stop (not more than three minutes) at the grave of Princeton University history professor William Sloane, who helped revive the concept of the Olympic Games 100 years ago. The flame will then be carried up Witherspoon Street to Nassau Street, heading south to Trenton. At Edgerstoune Road, the running/walking part of the relay will stop and a cyclist will take over for a stretch as far as Rider University; the running/walking relay will resume there briefly and then go back to cycling. The relay will continue south to Trenton Commons, where festivities will have started earlier, and stop for its daily 20-minute ceremony at about 8 p.m.. By 8:42 p.m., the flame will be carried over the "Trenton Makes, the World Takes"bridge, into Pennsylvania.

Of the 10,000 individuals who will carry the flame, only some 800 former Olympians will take part. Teti, who will coach three crew teams in Atlanta, said he received mail asking if he was interested and sent back an affirmative response. "So many people want to be involved," he says of the Olympics, "and how many times in your life do you get a chance to carry the Olympic torch?" This from a man who brought home a bronze medal for his rowing efforts in 1988, placed fourth four years later in Barcelona, Spain and was an alternate in the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles.

Teti, one of 10 children from a Philadelphia family, may run closer to his Pennsylvania home. Jacobs, who garnered two gold medals and a silver for swimming in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, now works in New York City and has said he expects to do his relay stretch closer to work than here. Beer, a veteran of the 1956 Olympics in which he won a gold medal for rowing, may take part in_ the ceremonies in Trenton.

Anderson, the Olympic hopeful, was elected by his classmates to participate in the relay and will do a relay of his own before Princeton's torch day: he plans to run the 1,500-meter heat at the Olympic trials in Atlanta June 17, then zip back to Princeton for the relay here the next day.

Another 2,500 torchbearers - 25 from New Jersey - are part of the "Share the Spirit" program from Coca Cola, which is presenting the 1996 Torch Relay. Gargiullo falls into this category, nominated for her efforts to assist others in her work as a nurse.

The majority of torchbearers, some 5,500, have been selected in conjunction with the United Way nationwide as "Community Heroes," chosen to carry the flame based on their outstanding contributions and service to others or for being role models or mentors. Nearly 150 judging panels were set up to do the work of choosing. Southern New Jersey was allotted 15 Community Hero Torchbearer slots. Among those who will fill this role is Johnson, a writer and editor of the Town Topics newspaper in Princeton, where she has worked for 21 years, and Hoover, president of the Princeton YWCA, where she spends some 20 hours a week in volunteer time.

Before joining Town Topics, Johnson volunteered in the community and at her children's schools. Although she has asthma, seven years ago Johnson took up rowing for recreation and exercise. She joined the Carnegie Lake Rowing Association and has competed as a sweep oar rower and as a sculler. She is a member of the Association's board of trustees and wrote and edited the CLRA newsletter for five years. It was a member of the Rowing Association who nominated her for the relay.

Johnson is no stranger to the rigors required to become an Olympic contestant, even if that knowledge was earned from the sidelines. In 1992, she was a volunteer at the trials on Mercer Lake at which many of the rowers were selected for that year's Olympics. And one might say she has earned knowledge of superhuman strength from the sidelines in yet another way: she is the mother of actor Christopher Reeve, who not only is well known for his movie version of Superman, but also is engaged in rigorous therapy following a debilitating riding accident which left him paralyzed a year ago.

"I was thrilled and overwhelmed," Johnson says when she heard the news of her selection. But she told the Relay Committee, "I can row but I can't run. They said, Don'tworry, we have people in wheelchairs participating. I told my sons and Christopher said, Nonsense, mom. You'll at least have to trot.' "

So Johnson is proud to say she can do more now than trot a 1.8-mile course from her home on Wilton Street to the corner of Prospect and Washington Road and back. She trained carrying a two-pound weight and ordered herself a new pair of sneakers as further preparation.

"The interest, the support, has been wonderful," she adds. Community Hero Torchbearer Hoover said she thinks she's done "just about every odd volunteer job there is" since she first started offering her time at age 17. Her adult community efforts have included beginning a grocery home delivery program for senior citizens in Princeton and food delivery in Trenton through work with Crisis Ministry. In the 1980s she served on the board of the North Princeton Developmental Center in Montgomery, a residential facility for the mentally handicapped. She also is a member of the board of trustees of Princeton's Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, where her daughters attended, and served as treasurer of the Princeton Cotillion, an annual non-alcohol_ic community party for area high school students.

"Volunteering is very important," says Hoover. "I think everyone should be involved." She said she not only hopes the torch relay will show people there are tangible benefits to volunteering, but also bolster the status of volunteers themselves. Hoover probably will walk a fast clip rather than run with the flame. She admits she's nervous, but her excitement most likely will get the better of her when torch day comes.

"I think the Olympics are wonderful," adds Hoover. "I love the spirit of it."

For more information on the Olympic Torch Relay through Mercer County, contact Linda Martin of the United Way of Greater Mercer County, (609) 637-4910.