By Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) // Photo via Maleek Diaz of SJSU Athletics
The COVID-19 pandemic might’ve left the world disjointed, but for San Jose State track and field freshmen Cameron Tarver and Jeremiah Walker, it attached them at the hip.
“It was the day that COVID started, and I said, ‘I’m tired of sitting in the house. I need to go somewhere,’” Walker recollected. “I call Cam, and I said, ‘Hey can I come over to your crib?’ He said, ‘Yeah it’s cool with me.’”
The interaction between the then-sophomore sprinters at Fresno’s Central High School might’ve seemed insignificant. Three years later, however, it was the initial seed to blossoming an inseparable friendship.
After illustrious high school careers, Walker and Tarver committed to San Jose State track and field where they’ve become a battery pack of electricity. Energizing the team’s resurgence this season while breaking and flirting with records set during SJSU’s hallowed “Speed City” era.
“They’re basically brothers,” said Charles Ryan, SJSU track and field head coach.
Before competing in this Thursday’s NCAA West Preliminary rounds, the two sat thirty yards from the famous Tommie Smith and John Carlos Victory Salute (Olympic Black Power Statues). They recounted how their enduring friendship was crystalized through video games.
“Our bonding would be on the game [NBA 2K]. During COVID that was the only thing you could really do,” Tarver said.
Eventually, Walker began to stay at Tarver’s house for days at a time. “He’d bring his Xbox, his TV, his Fire Stick, his Alexa, bringing everything,” Tarver said.
When their junior year came around, they added to Central Valley’s blistering heat by setting tracks ablaze.
Walker became a California State Champion in the 400-meter dash and was the only athlete in California with a top-10 time in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter. Meanwhile, Tarver was named a C.I.F. Section Champion in 2021.
Their prestigious junior campaign placed them amongst the top talent in California and Ryan’s recruitment checklist when he took the helm at SJSU in August of 2021. “I made them our top priority,” Ryan said.
Within his first week at SJSU, Ryan scheduled a home visit with both Tarver and Walker which was the first home visit of his tenure, too.
Ryan recalled that “It wasn’t until I came and did the home visit that I truly understood how close they were.”
By that point, the pair decided to tether themselves together. “I was like, ‘Yeah, Cam got the same ideas as me. We might as well link up, tie it together,” Walker said.
Ryan knew their talents but also knew their tethering came with risks. In his decades of experience, he’s seen close friends, siblings, and partners who decided to tether themselves like Walker and Tarver unravel at the seams. “There can only be one winner and sometimes when you’re not the winner [it causes] anger, jealousy and pettiness,” he said.
But in Walker and Tarver’s case, Ryan saw them as the exception rather than the rule.
“They legitimately cared about each other’s situation which is rare,” said Ryan. “It was a calculated risk for us, but a minimal one as I saw it.”
As fall turned to winter, the two began fielding interest from other schools. “I got between San Jose, Fresno Pacific and UCLA,” said Walker. “Cam was like leaning more on deciding on where I wanted to go. I was like, ‘Cam I think I decided.’”
So while plopped down in a Central High School hallway, Walker turned his head to Tarver and said, “I think San Jose State is the best option.”
Tarver nodded his head in approval.
The two went home, told their families and set up the arrangements to commit together at Central High School.
“My mom was over there smiling. His mom was over there smiling. Cameras were out and once we signed that paper, put that hat on, everybody was cheering,” said Walker. “We’re going to San Jose.”
When the 2022-23 school year began, the two roomed together and when the 2023 season began, Ryan’s gamble paid off with the pair excelling through the indoor season.
They competed while co-existing peacefully and ribbed without fracturing their bond.
No better example than the Mountain West Indoor Championships when Tarver dusted Walker in the 200 meters, notching a time of 20.87 seconds while setting a school record along the way.
“Before that race, me and Cam were talking smack to each other. I was like, ‘Cam you not going to beat me,’” recalled Walker.
Shockingly, Tarver felt the same way, “The night before … I was like, ‘Bro you’re not going to beat me.’”
Ryan sees it as a “rivalry of respect” rather than a “rivalry of bitterness.”
In large part because both of them were succeeding.
Amongst them was Walker’s time of 20.65 seconds in the 200-meter dash during the outdoor season. Which placed him fourth all-time in SJSU track and field history, trailing SJSU track and field Mount Rushmore fixtures in Smith, Carlos and Lee Evans.
The story of their phenomenal freshman campaigns crescendoed at the 2023 Mountain West Outdoor Championships in Clovis, California. The same place as their state championship in the 4x100m relay a year earlier.
“Everybody from Fresno knows, Jeremiah shows up when it matters. They’ve all seen that at the state championship when he ran a legendary anchor leg to win us a state title,” Tarver said.
Walker turned Tarver’s bold hunch into straight facts, steaming past the competition to win the men’s 400-meter with a mark of 45.74 seconds.
Then it came time for the duo to line up again in the 200-meter. Before the race, Walker told Tarver, “It doesn’t matter if you win or I win … we got to go one and two.”
From the first pop of the starting pistol, the two were neck-and-neck. Each dead set on not letting the other win, but this time – compared to the indoor championship – Walker took gold with a time of 20.61 as Tarver finished a hair behind for silver.
A moment and scene described as “magical” by SJSU track and field assistant coach Ernie Clark.
“I’m a big believer in people coming together for a reason … and these guys were absolutely meant to be here together,” Clark said.
Some are surprised the pair have remained close despite their potentially volatile dynamic.
Walker just tells them, “It’s more outside of the track. It’s a brotherhood thing.”
I love this article on my son Cameron Tarver. They made a great decision to attend San Jose State. We are extremely proud of them both.