Charlie Waldburger wasn’t about to back down from a challenge issued by his brother. No way, no how.

It didn’t matter that he hadn’t triple jumped before, that he wasn’t sure if he’d get his steps right, that in all honesty he didn’t really have a clue what he was doing.

All that mattered was his little brother had called him out.

It was put up or shut up time — again — and just like their countless backyard battles, neither brother was about to display a moment of mercy, a trace of tenderness.

Through no fault of his own, Robb Waldburger came in second in that afternoon’s jumping contest at Woolsey Stadium. But his older brother will be forever thankful he laid down the challenge that sparked his infatuation with the triple jump.

“It’s great to have your brother as your best friend who plays all your sports with you,” Charlie Waldburger said. “We can laugh and get mad and talk about all the memories. We’re both really competitive. We feed off each other and drive each other to perform higher than we thought we could.”

Despite his lateness in finding it, the triple jump became Waldburger’s specialty during his final track season at King’s High School.

He surpassed the school record at an early meet, then added to his mark a few more times, topping out at 44 feet, 8 inches at last month’s Class 1A state championships.

“He fell in love with the event and had a great year,” King’s track coach Daunte Gouge said. “He’s one of those kids who could have success in a lot of events. He’s a kid who’s always going to give you 110 percent. And he’s really coachable. You give him a hint or a pointer and he immediately reacts to it.”

For all those reasons and more, Waldburger was this year’s recipient of King’s High School’s John Clark male Athlete of the Year award.

Waldburger’s knack for running and jumping made him a force on the football field as well. He earned first-team, all-Chinook League honors on both sides of the ball in 2002, helping the Knights advance to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs.

“He always competes to win and takes that idea to the next level,” King’s football coach Jim Shapiro said. “He’s very focused and very analytical. His brainpower combined with his athletic ability allows him to be an exceptional athlete.”

Though he was sidelined with a knee injury for part of the playoffs, Waldburger rushed for 685 yards on just 80 carries and caught 16 passes for 222 yards during the regular season.

“I was really excited about being sort of the go-to guy this year,” he said. “Game after game you learn stuff from your performance and what you can do differently.”

Waldburger believes competing for a school like King’s gave him more opportunities to excel.

“At a small school if you really work at it you can be one of the better players,” he said, “and you can experience going to state and the football playoffs and getting a lot of varsity (playing) time. You don’t get as lost here. You get to experience more.”

And strike up some life-long friendships along the way.

“What I loved about competing at King’s, not only were you playing football or running track, you were meeting the greatest people and being supported by the greatest coaches around,” said Waldburger, who plans to study e-commerce at Washington State University.

“Some players go through their football careers and don’t get along with their coaches and struggle with their teammates. Here, it’s really like a big family. That’s makes the sports so much better, and you perform much better too when you have everyone encouraging and supporting you. That’s something I’ll always miss. King’s really has that down and you can’t find that a lot of other places.”Rachel Strand had felt pain before.

But nothing that compared with the agony the King’s senior went through at this year’s Class 1A state track and field championships.

Before leaving for Eastern Washington, Strand stopped by the doctor’s office for a heavy-duty dose of antibiotics she hoped would clear up a combination ear and sinus infection.

Unfortunately, the medication backfired and her dizziness and lightheadedness magnified. She woke up the following morning “feeling sicker than sick.”

“I got every single side effect imaginable,” Strand said.

Rather than pull out of her first event and risk disqualification from the rest of the meet, Strand limbered up for the mile.

She somehow summoned enough adrenaline to make it through the first lap and a half in relatively good shape, hitting her first few splits.

But midway through her second lap, a bolt of pain shot through Strand’s belly, rendering her virtually powerless for the remainder of the race.

“My abdominal wall flipped over and my shoulders pulled down. I ran half a lap like that,” Strand said. “Plus, I’m asthmatic, so being curled over isn’t the optimal position to be breathing in.”

Her knees refused to lift, but Strand trudged forward. It wasn’t until the final 200 meters that she dropped to last place.

“I got the pity claps all the way down the front straightaway,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Dismayed by her finish, Strand went on to qualify for the finals of the 800-meter run and picked off two runners with one last surge to place a surprising fifth.

Those points proved exceedingly valuable when the Knights edged Seattle Academy by a point to capture their third straight team title.

“Everybody was in lanes one and two, so I swung out to lane three and turned on the jets,” Strand said before correcting herself. “Well, as much jets that were left.”

When Strand headed to the podium to accept her medal, a coach from a rival school warned his athletes if they didn’t all stand up and applaud, they’d be walking home.

“She’s just such a great competitor,” Gouge said. “She’s so gritty. She’s not going to give up on anything.”

Strand’s courageous performances, won’t-quit attitude and exquisite academic resumé made her a lock for King’s High School’s Linda Montgomery Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.

The Knights never lost a league or Tri-district playoff game during Strand’s three years of varsity basketball and placed fourth and third at state the past two years.

A two-time Chinook League MVP, Strand averaged 16.4 points and more than seven boards a game for King’s this season and signed with Seattle Pacific University in April.

Though basketball has always been Strand’s favorite sport, her game was admittedly lackluster until her sophomore year. A six-inch growth spurt between junior high and ninth grade left Strand uncoordinated and out of sync.

“I look back and think, ‘Wow. How did you even make JV?’” she said.

But over time Strand grew into her 6-foot-1 frame and used it to her advantage, harassing defenses with an array of perimeter and post-up moves.

Strand’s size also aided her stint as a distance runner. She sliced through windy conditions to win the 2002 Class A/B state cross country title.

“How does someone built like me win a cross country championship? It’s unheard of,” Strand said. “It’s not really a big deal for me to run in the wind. I’m not going to go anywhere. You can’t blow me over, but a lot of those (other) girls you could.”

As she crossed the finish line well ahead of the second-place runner, Strand’s teammates didn’t try to mask their astonishment.

“The whole guys team was standing along the fence going, ‘How’d you do that?’” Strand said. “And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what just happened.’”

She acknowledged it probably had something to do with her spirit and stamina.

“My best talent athletically is my gut,” Strand said. “I’m really competitive and when something really matters, I’ll go for it. I’ll put everything I have into it.”

And then some.