Statistician an inspiration at Kentridge

When David Lee started taking statistics for the Kentridge boys basketball team as a senior in high school, he had no idea he would still be doing it nearly 40 years later.

“It has kind of turned out to be a lifetime project,” he said.

In the four decades he has volunteered for the team, Lee, 54, who gets around using a motorized wheelchair, has been an inspiration for players and coaches alike.

“You never hear a negative word out of him – everything is positive…” said Dave Jamison, the team’s head coach. “Sometimes our kids and even coaches feel sorry for themselves. But you see Dave over there doing this for nothing just because he loves being here and stays positive though everything. It is very inspiring.”

Lee’s stats taking started in 1978. He took classes at Kentridge until 1981 and then attended Highline Community College, but kept helping out with Kentridge’s basketball team.

“A lot of my classmates were involved with the team,” Lee said of his reason for keeping stats.

Brad Mirk was Lee’s classmate and played for the Chargers. He coached Kentridge in the late 1980s before moving to Puyallup.

“David is an eternal and absolute encourager,” Mirk said. “He always had nice and uplifting words to say to people. Even when the team is having its worst moments, David would always find a way to lift people’s spirits and give them perspective… He is just one of those people that are put on earth to make sure the rest of us have perspective about what is really important.”

Lee is a fixture for the Kentridge basketball program.

“He’s been up here forever, ” said Jamison, who is in his 16th year as coach for the Chargers. “I remember coaching at Kent-Meridian and we’d come here and he’d be down there yelling “D” (for defense). He knows all the history, all the players. He knows all these guys by name – talks to them all the time.”

Lee said the best part of helping the team is building relationships with the players.

“Naturally I want to see how they are going to do,” he said.

Always there for the team

Lee tries to attend all the games and practices and said if he misses one, he will be asked where he was.

When transportation is unavailable, Lee drives his motorized chair the couple of miles between the high school and his house in nearby unincorporated Renton. Unable to walk unassisted since birth, Lee has relied on a wheelchair since he started elementary school.

“It is really my only way up here,” he said. “I don’t want to be stuck at home.”

Jamison marvels at Lee’s dedication.

“He comes up here with frostbite on his nose, or he gets halfway here and it starts downpouring,” Jamison said. “He is tough.”

Jeff Shumake, who coached the basketball team in the 1990s and still teaches at Kentridge, said he is impressed by Lee’s loyalty to the school and the example he serves for others.

“We are not all dealt the same deck in life but you can still live life,” Shumake said. “He (Lee) does and he does it well.”

Lee, who also helps out with Kentridge’s baseball team, said he tries to encourage the players to do their best and give something back to their community.

“It is a family atmosphere here,” he said.

Lee said unfortunately he loses touch with a lot of the boys once they graduate from high school.

“The ones you do see, it is really nice to see them come back through,” he said.

Part of the family

Jamison said the team considers Lee a part of its family.

“We all treat him like we would anyone else,” Jamison said. “If he does something dumb we make fun of him too. We don’t spare anybody.”

Mirk said once during practice when he played on the team a ball rolled over near Lee’s wheelchair. Doug Helgeson, who coached the team at the time, jokingly told Lee he should dive for the ball just like everyone else on the team.

“We turned around and little while later he (Lee) was crawling over to get the ball rolling on the floor,” Mirk said. “He was going to be just like everyone else.”

People sometimes ask Lee if he thinks it is time to step down from his role with the team.

“I haven’t got any timetable toward retirement,” he said.

Others don’t understand why he does it for no pay.

“You can’t put a monetary value on the things that have happened over the years,” Lee said.

Some of his fondest memories include the team winning the state title in 1992 and taking second in state in 2007.

For the 2007 state tournament, the team made extra effort to include Lee in the festivities.

“They chartered a bus with a lift so I could go with the team,” Lee said.

Lee’s work hasn’t gone without recognition.

In 2011, for his 50th birthday, the team’s booster club gifted Lee with a letterman jacket before a playoff game against Kentwood. Lee recalled the Chargers lost the game but it was still a memorable night.

“It was still a good experience,” he said. “We still had a good time.”