Or a mother.

Whitney Leman graduated from Ninilchik High School on Sunday. The senior point guard for the Lady Wolverines led her team to an unprecedented four straight 2A basketball state titles and racked up a long list of honors and awards.

Whitney's mom, Jamie Leman, has put in some serious hours and gone above and beyond her duties in the position of "basketball mom." Being the spouse of Ninilchik girls basketball coach Dan Leman and mother to past and future Wolverine roundballers must come with enough courtside duties of its own.

Yet, ask the elder Leman how many assists her daughter averaged per game last season, and the statistics tick off like stock quotes.

"Twenty points, six assists and six steals," Jamie said. "She also led the team in free-throw shooting percentage and was a state finalist for the Wendy's Heismann Award and the McDonald's All American Team."

All mothers are proud, but this one isn't even exaggerating. In fact, she appears to have left off quite a bit from her daughter's high school resume.

Whitney graduated with a 3.78 grade-point average and has been on the A-honor roll for all four years of high school. She volunteers her time at the Legion Auxiliary, State Fair, Domestic Engineers, Halloween Carnival, and Ambulance Pancake Feed in Ninilchik. She was named most valuable player of every tournament she participated in during her sophomore, junior and senior years, including District and State tourneys, and was named to First Team All State all four years.

Additionally, the Wolverines lost only three games during Whitney's entire high school career and two of those games she didn't play due to injury.

And then there is that honor of being the first girl in the state to have been named Player of the Year three times.

"The only other Alaskan player to have done that was Trajan Langdon," pointed out Whitney's mom, referring to the East Anchorage High School standout who now plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But what about Whitney? What does she enjoy doing? What does she want to do with her life?

"Besides basketball?" she asked.

Besides basketball.

"I just want to be successful," Leman said. "I know I can't play basketball for the rest of my life, but I want to play it as long as I can." The drive to play ball and work so hard at it is something Leman credits her father for instilling in her.

"I'd have to say my dad has influenced me the most," she said. "He is the one that made me want to coach and made me want to work so hard for the things I love."

According to Mom, the combination of basketball and Whitney was no accident.

"Whitney had a basketball in her hands from the age of two," Jamie Leman said. "Even her baby announcement had little basketballs on it. I think her father started molding her early on."

Apparently the molding took.

Whitney received basketball scholarship offers from a variety of school, and is currently struggling with the decision of attending college in either Alaska or Oregon. She plans to study photojournalism.