Flashback: Kurt Steck Juanita, Class of 1986

Sport: Football

High-school rewind: Led Juanita to back-to-back Class 4A football championships in 1984 and '85. The Rebels from Kirkland won 26 straight in going unbeaten both years. The 5-foot-9, 185-pound running back set big-school state rushing records for career (3,968 yards) and season (1,801). He still owns KingCo's career mark and is No. 4 in 4A state history. Also was star catcher for Juanita baseball team that won state title in 1985.

After high school: Attended Air Force Academy for one year, then transferred to Washington State and was a part-time starter in baseball as an outfielder and third baseman (1988-91). Among his teammates were future major-leaguers John Olerud, Aaron Sele and Scott Hatteberg.

After athletics: Graduated from WSU with a degree in business administration. Worked for McCaw and AT&T before joining Microsoft, where he has worked for five years and is director of business development for small and midmarket businesses.

Personal: Lives near Mill Creek with his wife of 10 years, Angela, and two children, Lauren, 5, and Benjamin, 3.

Fast forward: A few miles from where Kurt Steck lives, Johnie Kirton of Jackson led a stampede of running backs who left Steck's old rushing records further in the dust this season. Steck never saw Kirton or any of the others play. He hasn't been to a high-school game since his old coach at Juanita, Chuck Tarbox, retired and moved to Arizona.

Steck is too busy setting new goals for his new team, Microsoft, where he is a manager. Not personal goals — Steck says he never believed in that — but team goals. Eighteen years after he led Juanita to back-to-back unbeaten seasons, Steck, now 36, is still driven to succeed.

"I've always been able to identify things I wanted to do and stay focused, whether it's football or business," he says.

Steck's lone athletic passion is the men's league baseball he plays every summer in Redmond with Greg Hunter, Rick Miailovich and some other former teammates from Juanita's golden years from the mid-1980s. Says Steck, who's still within a few pounds of his high-school playing weight, "I don't see any of us quitting until we can no longer walk onto the field."

— Don Shelton