as a young man stephenson attended hawthorne high school. at hawthorne, he lettered in three sports football, basketball, track and field 55'8 shot, 153'4 disc. while playing football as the team's starting left offensive tackle and also played defensive tackle and recorded 101 tackles/11.5 sacks in three years, earning 1st team all-bay league honors in all three season at offensive tackle and 2 time all cif, 1st team daily breeze, 1st team l.a. times.