The Common Interest Management Gael Spotlight is a monthly feature story about Saint Mary's Athletics and a behind-the-scenes look at the Gaels.
 
MORAGA, Calif. – When the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down in March 2020, many high school and collegiate athletes had their seasons stolen from them. For athletes across the country this was heartbreaking, as it meant there would to be no last practices, no final games, and no chances at winning a trophy. Athletes were forced to cope in different ways during the pandemic, and many struggled to fill the void left by the sports they could no longer play.
 
This was the case for high school sophomore Kellen Steplight, who had just come off a wildly successful high school cross country and track season. The Vacaville native took up running at a young age, and has been hooked since.
 
"I started running when I was nine years old for a local youth club that ran for the organization USATF. So, I've been involved for it for a good amount of time, I'm coming up on 9 or 10 years now. I discovered running when I was nine, it was one of the very few sports that really captured my interest. Being a very small kid, I wasn't really good at a lot of sports. So running was something that didn't require any kind of physical confrontation with people. It's kind of individual. That's what I liked about it a lot. I was hooked from then on and I went on competing at more national level competitions all the way up to about eighth grade."
 
As a freshman at Vacaville High School, Steplight excelled in both cross country and track. With 800-meter and 1600-meter times that placed him among the fastest in the country, Steplight was looking forward to improving even more going into his sophomore season.
 
The cross-country season in the fall didn't quite go to plan, even though Steplight's team overall raced really well. When the pandemic cut the track season short, Steplight, like many others, struggled to figure out what was next.
 
"It kind of led me into a place of limbo because I didn't really know when I'd start running again. So, my coach was just training me just to stay in shape, but it was a lot of fun running because it was me running with two or three other teammates in a small group setting. There's a little bit of beauty to running without any kind of a purpose because you really get to enjoy how fun running is."
 
As COVID-19 restrictions began to ease towards the end of the year, Steplight eyed a cross country race in Arizona as his return. Anxious to compete again, the race couldn't have gone worse.
 
"I'd had bad races in the past but to completely underperform my expectations was not really common. And it felt very weird at the time. And fast forward maybe one or two months after, another bad race and several other bad workouts later I had to figure out what was wrong. I ended up getting my iron levels tested and I had extremely low iron for a runner, which kind of put me out for a few months trying to replenish those iron stores."
 
Low iron greatly impacts an athlete's energy levels, and Steplight ended up spending the rest of the fall season improving his iron deficiencies. As he was finally feeling better towards the start of the spring track season, he was faced with another setback.
 
"I had a really immense pain in my foot in my ankle area that I could not shake and I went through a good three-month period from March to May trying to figure out what was going on. I went to different physical therapists, tried icing, tried doing all this stuff and it just wouldn't really go away until eventually I got an MRI and found out I had a bone spur in my foot which was causing a lot of pain for me."
 
Steplight had the surgery to remove the bone spur in June 2021, keeping him from running until October. Despite the pain and setback, he returned to competition in the fall.
 
"I was able to come back for my senior year of cross country which was really fun. It was just super nice to be a part of people who I care about and their success and just trying to push the boundaries. I also had the opportunity to have a senior track season which is really cool. You know, obviously not fully 100% but all things considered still really fun to just finish that out on a high note to a certain extent."
 
In April 2022, Steplight committed to running at Saint Mary's. Soon after he decided he'd be heading to Moraga in the fall, Steplight experienced one more setback on his road to full strength.
 
"Midway through the season I remember I got another MRI because I was experiencing some more pain in a similar area as the last time and the doctors found another bone spur that had sprouted up. I had that surgery in July, and I was conveniently already coming back from the first surgery so I knew how to recover!"
 
The second surgery set Steplight back even further, but that didn't deter him from believing he could get back to where he once was.
 
 "I didn't start running again until two months ago. October is when I really started actually started training again. It's been a long journey of injury, iron deficiency, kind of just get back to where I was to a certain extent, which has been very difficult and I would be lying if I said I'm always motivated. I'm always super gung-ho about coming back from something. I just trust my resilience and I trust what I've built upon and in the past years and I just go forward with it."
 
Despite all the setbacks, Steplight's refuses to back down, choosing to face his obstacles head on because he knows the reward will be worth it.
 
"I've always had the mindset that injuries are something you can come back stronger from as long as you put in the patience and the time to recovering. I think knowing in my mind I have so much more to do in the sport helps me look towards the future and look towards what I want to go achieve."
 
Resilience comes in many forms, and the pandemic forced many to adapt and overcome setbacks. Setbacks are a part of life; it's how you handle them that defines who you are and who you'll grow to be.