Flashback: Still involved with the game that he made look easy

Athlete: Grant Leep, Mount Vernon Class of 1998.

Sport: Basketball.

High-school rewind: Three-time all-state selection led the Bulldogs to the state tournament three consecutive years. Leep averaged 18.2 points and 8.5 rebounds his junior year while leading Mount Vernon to a 28-1 record, losing only to Mercer Island in the title game. His senior season, the Bulldogs fell to a Jamal Crawford-led Rainier Beach team in the state semifinals.

After high school: Played at Washington (1999-2002) for coach Bob Bender. As team captain his senior year, the 6-foot-7 forward averaged 7.4 points and led the Pac-10 in three-point field-goal percentage (.481).

Personal: Leep married a UW classmate, the former Allison Richardson, who was a star for the Huskies volleyball team. Allison is a sports reporter for KXLY, the ABC-TV affiliate in Spokane. Grant hopes to go back to school and get his master's degree in teaching. He plans to continue coaching, at the college or high-school level.

Fast forward: After graduating from Washington with a major in political science and a minor in history, he spent one season as an assistant basketball coach at North Seattle Community College. Leep just completed his second season as assistant coach at Community Colleges of Spokane, where he also teaches physical education.

The head coach at Spokane is Eric Hughes, a former Bender assistant who was responsible for recruiting Leep to UW. Leep credits Hughes for helping him perfect his outside shot at Washington.

"My senior year I cannot count the number of times he was with me in the gym at 6 o'clock in the morning, working on my shot," Leep said. "I owe a lot to him."

Mike Jensen and Will Conroy are the only current Huskies who played when Leep was at UW.

"I'm happy for their success," he said of Washington's current success. "I love watching them play. They're such great athletes."

Rick Lund