City Male Athlete Of The Year / Nate Burleson, O'dea -- `Major Force' In Three Sports -- Reno-Bound Star Continues Family Athletic Tradition

O'Dea basketball coach Phil Lumpkin nodded in agreement when told that Nate Burleson would be named male athlete of the year in Seattle by The Times.

"Good choice," he said. "He was a major force in everything he did."

Lumpkin can be excused for having a pro-Burleson bias because the senior was the best defensive player on a team that won the Metro championship and finished second to Mercer Island in the state 3A tournament.

But Burleson's achievements indeed make him stand out.

The 175-pound senior made so many big plays as a wide receiver and cornerback that he wound up on the Star Times all-area football team and was second-team all-state.

In basketball, he straitjacketed opponents and provided scoring and rebounding when needed. Saturday, he won the state 3A 300-hurdles championship in 38.7 seconds.

"I'll take all the Nates I can get," Lumpkin said. "He's an excellent team guy. He worked hard in practice. He respected his teammates and his teammates respected him."

Football Coach Monte Kohler said, "Nate is unselfish, self-motivated and a great team player."

The name Burleson is hardly unknown in Seattle athletics, thanks to Nate's father and two older brothers.

Nate's father, Al, was a hero in one of the wildest Apple Cups ever played. In 1975, Washington State led the Huskies 27-14 and had the ball fourth-and-1 on the UW 14 with 2:47 to play.

Instead of going for a field goal or attempting to run for the first down, Jim Sweeney's Cougars attempted a pass and Burleson intercepted it and returned it 93 yards for a touchdown, still the longest runback in UW history.

"They tried to rub it in by going for it when a field goal would have put us out of the game," the ex-Husky recalled, sitting in the family rec room in Renton with Nate Monday afternoon.

The Huskies got the ball back with 1:27 to go and Spider Gaines grabbed a tipped pass and ran 78 yards for the winning TD. A few days later, Sweeney resigned.

Nate's older brothers played different roles in making him the athlete he is.

Alvin, a Garfield grad, will be a senior defensive back at the UW in the fall. Kevin redshirted on the University of Minnesota basketball team this winter.

"Alvin used to beat me up all the time and I would fight back and that would make me tougher," Nate said. "I carried that out to the court and field and even track."

And Kevin?

"Kevin is the most disciplined person I've ever known," Nate added. "Hopefully, some of that will rub off on me."

How organized is Kevin?

"He would make lists of what he was going to do during a day," Nate said. "It would have things like dribble for an hour in the garage, read a book for an hour, shoot for two hours in the afternoon."

The boys' father notes that Kevin had so much discipline that he stopped eating candy and drinking pop at age 12.

One thing Nate learned early was that defense can be satisfying even if it isn't as glamorous as offense.

"I've always wanted to guard the other team's best guy and try to shut him down," he said. "It's just a pride I take."

O'Dea students borrowed the nickname of Sonic Gary Payton and started calling Burleson "The Glove" this year.

There's one more Burleson in the family - Lyndale, 13, who will be an eighth-grader in the fall at a Renton middle school. He will be the final son in the nest in the fall when Nate goes to the University of Nevada at Reno on a football scholarship. He chose Nevada over Washington State because the school had shown interest in him for months.

The Burlesons are a family that has done a lot of playing and praying. They are a religious family and proud of it.

"We pray together," said the father, who demands that his sons be humble and polite.

As a former pro athlete, the father has strong ideas of what it takes to succeed and hasn't been bashful about making suggestions. When Nate was lukewarm about track a few years ago, his father remarked:

"It will help you in other sports."

It did. It also helped him close out his high-school career with a first-place medal.

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Nate Burleson / bio.

High school - O'Dea. Year - Senior. Sports - Football, basketball, track. Age - 17. Height, weight - 6-2, 175. Honors - Won Class 3A state 300-meter hurdles championship last Saturday. Finished eighth in 110 hurdles as junior. Star Times all-area football pick and second-team all-state as senior. All-Metro as junior and senior. Two-year varsity basketball player. Considered best defender in league as senior. Second-team All-Metro and second-team all-tournament at state. Academics - 2.7 grade-point average. Hobbies - TV and music. Personal - Third oldest of three brothers. Al, who went to Garfield, is UW defensive back who will be a senior in the fall. Kevin redshirted as freshman this year on Minnesota basketball team. Lyndale, 13, attends middle school in Renton. Father Al is former UW star who is a loading manager for Associated Grocers. He played seven years in the Canadian Football League. Wife Valerie works for Darigold in Issaquah. Family lives in Renton. Nate attended Lindbergh High School as freshman. College - Nevada (Reno) on football scholarship.

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Athletes of the year / boys.

CITY - Nate Burleson, O'Dea (football, basketball, track). EAST - Drew Dunning, Liberty (football, basketball, soccer). SOUTH - Paul Arnold, Kennedy (football, basketball, track). NORTH - Teyo Johnson, Mariner (football, basketball, track).

PAST CITY WINNERS.

1998 - Chad Kodama, Roosevelt; 1997 - Antonio Conley, Rainier Beach; 1996 - Jon Minter, Blanchet; 1995 - Chris Johnson, O'Dea; 1994 - Michael Johnson, Cleveland; 1993 - Jayson Bass, O'Dea; 1992 - Andre Winston, Garfield; 1991 - Joe Trippy, Seattle Prep.