Cameron Stepney was well on his way to becoming one of the top hurdlers in the state.

Last year as a junior, Stepney took sixth in the 300-meter hurdles at the CIF Track and Field State Championships. He was one of the top returning runners for San Bernardino San Gorgonio, and UCLA had shown interest in Stepney, who had a 3.3 GPA.

But a bad case of senioritis nearly cost him his shot at the state meet.

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Stan Lim / The Press-Enterprise

After missing the season's start due to poor grades, Cameron Stepney won the San Andreas League title in the 300 hurdles.

"At first, I'd check my grades and everything was all right," Stepney said by phone. "But then, I just got caught up in (ditching school) and I didn't want to go back."

At the time, Stepney said, he was dealing with family tension, which he wouldn't elaborate on. And his habitual ditching led to further strife at home, which led to more ditching.

"It was a circle that I couldn't get out of," he said.

Stepney said he didn't ditch school to hang out with a girlfriend or buddies, but rather to escape from people.

So where did he go? Wal-Mart.

"I'd spend hours just walking around," he said.

Spartans coach Ed Clark confronted Stepney about his grades, which eventually went south to the point where he did not have the 2.0 average to qualify for track.

"I had to tell him he couldn't run," Clark said by phone. "In my 29 years of coaching, I've never had a kid that garnered so much interest from colleges. But there wasn't anything we could do. He had to work on it and resolve it."

San Gorgonio's athletic director, Matt Maeda, also got involved.

"I tried to tell him he needed to stay focused academically," Maeda said.

Stepney, who also was a receiver on the football team, realized how far things had gone when he was reminded by teammates of a former player's fate.

"I always said I wasn't going to be that guy," Stepney said. "He was a great player and could have gone to any Division I college on an athletic scholarship. But he didn't have the grades. So he let that talent go to waste."

That's when Stepney refocused on academics and worked his way back on the track team. He rejoined the squad three weeks ago and won the San Andreas League title in the 300 hurdles in 39.08 seconds.

But Clark can't help but think what might have been if Stepney had competed with the team for the whole season.

"His time at state last year was 37.98," Clark said. "Our league record is 37.53, set by former Pittsburgh Steelers player and (San Bernardino) Cajon track star Charles Johnson in 1990. Stepney would have broken that record. But now it's about trying to get him as deep into CIF as possible."

Stepney said he doesn't regret what he went through. But he realizes he now has to take the long road to where he wants to go.

"I'm probably going to go to Riverside Community College," Stepney said. "But I still hope to get to UCLA."

Reach John Gonzales at 951-368-9729 or jgonzales@PE.com