ED RHEE Senior Jason Stephens, who
always wears his father’s wedding ring, is fully focused on
football this season.
By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Reporter
Jason Stephens sits at his locker and starts to cry. As he
thinks about what he needs to do to win and the opponent who stands
in his way, Stephens gets so angry that the tears just come.
“For some reason I have this hatred of whoever is on the
other side,” said Stephens, who has cried before every big
game since high school. “I get really emotional. When I get
on the field, it’s my chance to let it out.”
Perhaps an emotional outlet was just what Stephens needed. He
started playing football in high school at around the same time
that his father, James Stephens, passed away.
“His dad was a real sports buff,” said Vickie Ross,
his mother “I think that was his way of dealing with
it.”
Although he was such a hard-hitting safety that the players he
tackled sometimes had to be taken off the field, Stephens was a
totally different person off the field. After Friday night football
games when the guys wanted to go out, Stephens made sure his mom
had plans too before making any of his own.
“He went from experiencing his father’s death to
jumping into his shoes,” Ross said. Stephens’ older
brother moved out around the same time, leaving just Stephens and
his mom.
“Basically I was the man of the house,” he said.
“I had to grow up really fast. It molded me into who I am
now.”
According to teammate Ryan Nece, Stephens was molded into
“a man with responsibilities,” one who became the
strong safety on one of the top football teams in the nation.
Yet the path to his current success was not smooth. His past two
seasons, Stephens struggled with on-field performance which caused
him to lose confidence in himself and in turn affected his
academics. Academic and athletic troubles fed on each other until
he considered quitting football altogether.
“I felt like I was worn out,” Stephens said.
“It was taking so much out of me emotionally. I just kind
of gave up.”
For Stephens, it was the thought of his mother and how she and
others helped him to get to UCLA, that first inspired him to turn
things around.
Stephens began working hard over the winter to win back the
starting position he held his freshman and part of his sophomore
season. He had problems with the last two defensive coordinators
but when Phil Snow came in, Stephens saw the opportunity for a
fresh start.
“By the end of spring he was the best strong safety, and
he’s really grown in the last two months,” Snow said.
“He’s a hard worker and a tough kid.”
Today, Stephens cultivates those aspects of himself that are
reminiscent of his father, similarities that have made Stephens the
player he is today.
“A lot of the mannerisms I have are exactly like my
father,” he said. “I think that the older I get, the
more I get like him. Just little things he used to do and ways he
used to think. I see myself thinking the same way.”
Stephens’ athleticism and passion are certainly a large
part of why he has 22 tackles already this season. But his ability
to read offenses, a skill in which Snow has tutored him, is his
biggest asset as a defender.
“He’s a very smart player, very aware and always
prepared,” fellow strong safety Ben Emmanuel said.
As he has gotten back to making hard hits, his relatives joke
that they can see his father laughing now at how his scrawny little
“J” has turned into a knock-out football player.
Though he no longer makes sure his mom has plans after the game,
he still cries in the locker room before big games. But when he
hits the field, victory is just 60 minutes of struggle away.