Three years ago, Malcolm Colbert was the lone freshman on the Post Falls High varsity boys basketball team.

The Trojans were 10-12 and went two and out at the 5A Region 1 tournament.

The next season, Colbert was one of just two varsity returners, and there was a new head coach - a young guy, a Trojan alum, with not much hair but quite a bit of fire and passion, and a man with a direction.

Three years later, Mike McLean guided his alma mater to its first state boys basketball championship since 1964.

"After my freshman year, when McLean first got here, I didn't know we'd end up being this great," said Colbert, now a senior, last Saturday night, after he'd scored a game-high 19 points as Post Falls beat Eagle 68-60 in the state title game at the Idaho Center in Nampa. "McLean knows what he's doing. That first year, we thought he was psycho, but it paid off big time."

COLBERT WAS sitting on a table in the trainers' room at the Idaho Center while he uttered those comments. He had several bags of ice wrapped around his right knee - a ritual he has had to go through often during his high school career.

Colbert dislocated his right kneecap for the fourth time last summer, and he returned to the basketball court before it had fully healed. In first quarter of Post Falls' semifinal game vs. Madison of Rexburg on Friday night, his kneecap slipped out again.

He missed a total of two minutes of playing time, then played all 32 minutes the next night in the title game. He's considering surgery after playing in this Saturday's Idaho high school all-star games at North Idaho College, and if things work out, the 6-foot-1 Colbert would like to continue his basketball career at the University of Puget Sound, an NCAA Division III school in Tacoma, Wash.

"I think it's very underrated what Malcolm Colbert has done all year," McLean said. "He's dealt with an injury that most kids won't play through. I don't think he gets enough credit for the adversity he goes through, taking the ice baths every night, having tears in his eyes in practice and games because it hurts so bad. His basketball IQ is by far the highest on our team."

TWO YEARS ago, with five sophomores on the varsity - Colbert, Shawn Reid, Connor Hill, Jeremy Cragin and Kevin Muncey - the Trojans finished 8-14 following another two-and-out performance at regionals.

Last year, with then-freshman Marcus Colbert and junior Josh Cozzens joining the varsity, Post Falls went 18-7, winning its state opener, losing a tough overtime decision to Madison in the semifinals, then winding up fifth.

This year, the Trojans capped a 22-4 season with an impressive three-game run at state last weekend.

"Throughout the season, I've challenged them," McLean said after the title game. "Taking this job three years ago, we played a whole lot of sophomores way over their head. I challenged them from Day 1. I had a long-term goal, so everything we did from three years ago to now, was with a purpose. And right now, it's a culmination of the hard work."

WHAT MADE Post Falls tough to defend, besides the fact the Trojans were quicker than most teams and were able to drive to the basket, was that four of them - the Colbert brothers, Reid and Hill - averaged scoring in double figures.

"I know as a coach I'm very blessed to have four kids who can flat score," McLean said. "We don't have to run special screens for them. Our offense is just motion based, and they just get it within the rhythm.

"Obviously Marcus and Shawn can draw attention, and that opens up a lot of lanes for Connor. Connor sometimes is the forgotten one, but on any other team, he's the star. We just have more than one star on our team.

"If I were to play against us, obviously you have some issues. Obviously our dribble penetration really breaks things down. And we can shoot. And every game that we lost this year, we just shot poorly."

Plus, the Trojans used that quickness to play so incredibly sticky defense down the stretch. It helped Post Falls come back vs. Coeur d'Alene in the regional tournament's second-place game to state. And on several possessions at state, Post Falls' defense kept the other teams from being able to attack the basket, forcing the foes to back it out - and drawing appreciative cheers from the Trojan faithful.

Reid credited that to "defensive drill upon defensive drill," including a drill of full-court one-on-one, where if the defender stops the offensive player, the defender gets the ball.

"We really didn't pick up the defensive pressure until the last two weeks to a month," Reid said. "Teams were trying to slow down, so let's just make them play faster. So we started denying the ball, playing full court."

POST FALLS will lose three senior starters - Malcolm Colbert, Cragin and Reid, who has signed with Montana State - and seven seniors total. But the Trojans will return guards Hill and Marcus Colbert, as well as junior post Matt Lickfold and junior guard Damon Gonzales - who were both reserves in a rotation which went as deep as 11 players.

McLean graduated from Post Falls in 1995. As a senior, he played on a Trojans team that finished sixth at state. He said his goal as coach is to build a program that can compete among the state's best every year.

"We don't want this to be a one-hit wonder," McLean said. "We don't want to wait another 46 years for the next one."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.