Jason Grant, Toppenish's three-sport star, is SBLive's 1A Athlete of the Year for 2021-22

The three-sport all-league selection helped Toppenish win its first playoff football game in 31 years and snap a rival's 122-game league win streak in basketball.

Author:
Andy Buhler, SBLive Sports
Publish date:
Jun 16, 2022 11:36 PM EDT

Welcome to a continuing tradition at SBLive Washington – honoring the WaFd Bank 2021-22 senior athletes of the year for each classification, recognizing the top multi-sport athlete in the state.

The criteria isn’t too expansive: The starting point is finding seniors who are all-league/all-state performers in two or more sports. Totality of career is also a factor. So are administrator/coach/fan recommendation.

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Jason Grant played against members of Toppenish’s 2021-22 boys soccer team growing up, and remembers how talented they were at a young age – and how many of them stuck together. When they went 13-0, won a 1A SCAC title and entered the state playoffs as the top overall seed this spring, he wasn’t surprised.

He admired the school’s boys and girls wrestling programs, which swept team state titles with a historic 608 combined points at Mat Classic in February, and the way each of them committed to the sport year-round.

Grant, SBLive’s 1A Senior Athlete of the Year, led the football team to its first state playoff appearance since 1996 and first playoff win since 1991.

He helped the boys basketball team end rival Zillah’s 122-game league win streak, win a 1A South Central Athletic Conference and district titles and a fifth place finish in the 1A state tournament in Yakima.

“The chemistry this senior class had and the legacy that we’ve left too, I think that’s going to be hard to beat,” Grant said.

“It wasn’t just football, basketball … It was all sports.”

Success across the school’s athletic programs, he said, was started by a senior class filled with a long list of high-achieving, hard-working athletes.

And Grant, a hulking 6-foot-1, 210-pound forward, receiver and safety played perhaps a bigger part in the school’s athletic success this year as anyone.

There's no secret workout or gimmick behind Grant's physical dominance across three sports. Whether a lift, field workout or practice, he showed up every day.

Athletes like him "just don’t come along very often," Toppenish athletic director Brett Stauffer said.

He broke program records for touchdown receptions in a game and receiving yards in a season. He was named to more all-league teams than he can count on one hand.

But when Grant, who is graduated and will spend the summer fighting fires before he reports to Eastern Oregon in August for football camp, reflects on his accomplished senior year, his mind takes him to Toppenish’s home locker room on the basketball team’s senior night.

It was Feb. 4, senior night, when the Wildcats snapped Zillah’s 122-game league win streak. Players filed into the locker room earlier than normal, and you could hear a pin drop in for more than an hour before the game as players mentally prepared.

“I scanned the room,” Grant said. “No one was talking. Everyone was in their own head, in their own zone. Even kids that didn’t even play. And that was the game we served up a (whooping) to Zillah.”

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JASON GRANT BIO

School: Toppenish.

Sports: Football, basketball, baseball.

Next step: Signed to play football at Eastern Oregon University. But first, he's working on a firefighting crew over the summer.

Senior-year highlights: Football: First team all-South Central Athletic Conference wide receiver and defensive back and league offensive player of the year. Helped Toppenish win its first state playoff game in more than 20 years, first undefeated regular season in program history. Basketball: Second team all-league selection, surpassed 1,000 career points, helped Wildcats win a SCAC championship, district championship and finish fifth place at state. Baseball: .First team all-league selection, four-year varsity third baseman and shortstop.

Career accomplishments: Broke program record for single game touchdown receptions with six and season receiving yards. Multi-year starter and all-league selection in three sports.

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