TOUGH TARTAN: St. Margaret's running back Hunter Steffien, center, rushed for for more than 1,000 yards and scored 17 touchdowns despite a knee injury. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER FILE PHOTO |
St. Margaret's Steffien is top small schools athlete
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The three-sport star impresses in and out of competitions.
St. Margaret's Harry Welch has been a football coach for 34 years. He has coached teams that have won league and CIF titles and has had his fair share of players go on to play at the college level.
So when Welch calls his star running back from last season, Hunter Steffien, one of the greatest players and individuals he has ever known, he is saying it with a wealth of experience and the resume to back it up.
Focusing not on the athletic ability or talent of the 6-foot-2, 205-pound player, Welch instead heaped a different kind of praise on Steffien, who the Register's Small Schools Athlete of the Year.
"He's a kid that has the respect of all of his peers, as well as all of the adults on campus," Welch said. "He serves his community and is just one of the most well-rounded athletes in California.
"Hunter Steffien is a 21st century renaissance man."
A three-sport star who plays both lacrosse and basketball as well as football, Steffien embodies the term student-athlete.
Having attended the highly regarded, academically challenging St. Margaret's Episcopal School his entire life, Steffien has grown into a leader both on campus and in the community.
He is a verger for the church, is a four-year counselor at the Special Camp for Special Kids and referees basketball games at the local Boys and Girls Club.
And yet, despite all of his accolades and success, it was in a time of struggle during his junior year when Steffien tasted failure and responded in a way that only those that were close to him would have expected.
Midway through football season, Steffien realized that something was wrong with his right knee. A trip to the doctor revealed the problem.
"I had osteochondritis, where the cartilage in my knee had torn," Steffien said. "It limited my mobility, but I chose to play out the rest of the season and have surgery afterwards. There was a chance my knee could get caught on the torn cartilage, but I wanted to finish the season."
He would finish the season, rushing for 1,068 yards and 17 touchdowns and helping St. Margaret's to a perfect 14-0 record.
Then it was time for surgery.
Gone were his basketball and lacrosse seasons. A simple procedure to clear out the torn cartilage, the only complication from the surgery was the extended rehab time that Steffien would have to endure on his road to recovery.
"The doctors had told him it would take 4-6 months to fully recover," Welch said. "Not only did he miss the rest of his junior year in athletic, but all during summer, he was unable to do a full workout on the basketball court or the football field.
"Even as we got into the football season, he was still limping. But what we didn't know at the time, is that he was limping to greatness."
And while there may have been questions about whether Steffien had lost a step, he answered them with a dominating performance in St. Margaret's first game of 2007, rushing for 206 yards and three touchdowns against Mammoth.
Not only had Steffien not regressed, but in his words, he was actually better.
"The surgery was a really humbling experience for me," Steffien said. "During the summer I kept thinking I wasn't as fast as I was, but it just took time and when I finally got back, I realized I was actually faster than I was before.
"Just having to go through the long rehab process, and having times when I really didn't think I'd be able to get back, it just made everything I did this year all the more rewarding."
What he did was rush for 2,350 yards and score 44 touchdowns while leading his team to another undefeated 14-0 season and its second consecutive CIF-Southern Section Northeast Division championship.
Steffien was named the Northeast Division offensive player of the year and was the leading rusher in Orange County.
He also helped the St. Margaret's basketball team capture the Academy League championship and led his lacrosse team to a 21-3 record with a team-high 44 goals.
And with his high school career now over and college on the horizon, it is not a question of if but in what ways will Steffien continue to excel in life.
"Hunter is just a spectacular young man and I will never forget him for the rest of my life," Welch said. "He has the opportunity to do anything he wants and be great at it, and to have known and been a part of the life of someone so special, I just feel blessed."
Contact the writer: preps@ocvarsity.com
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