Raleigh Leppek is one of us. In the fall he keeps stats for the WHMI 93.5 FM football broadcast.
By winter he becomes one of the nation’s smallest big men on Howell’s boys basketball team.
That’s the way Highlanders coach Nick Olson describes him. He is Howell’s big man off the bench even though he is the team’s second shortest guy at 5-foot-11.
He is no basketball star. Leppek is more likely to give you a black eye than score a key basket. He is Rudy in basketball shorts, an overachieving monster who crouches on defense while looking for weaknesses in opponents.
He will tie you up. Beat you up and be on the up and up on the floor. That’s why no one messes with the WHMI sports staff. We are all like him.
Howell (12-9 overall, 7-7 in the KLAA) is not going to win every game. But no one outworks this team. Not even first place Novi (17-4, 12-2) outworked Howell while pulling away for a 61-45 victory over the Highlanders at Howell last week.
“Raleigh is a guy where you never have to question his effort,” Olson said. “He is a little bit unorthodox which throws other guys off. We tell him to play hard and be a disrupter as you said. He gives teams fits.”
Prep squads are filled with Raleigh Lepek’s. They fight and scrap and do all the dirty work. They don’t complain while others score all the points and grab rebounds. Guys like Lepek don’t complain. They are happy when the team wins.
And if no one notices their contributions then so be it.
“He is kind of a 5-11 big man,” Olson said. “Even though he is undersized you wouldn’t know it by the way he plays. He doesn’t get overpowered.”
Lepek lacks a sweet J or three-point shot. However, he can control opponents and scoop up loose balls because he has hands like a vice grip.”
“He is an IQ guy,” Olson said. “Him being a small, big man allows him to crotch and look for things. He is super strong. When he gets his paws on it, he is usually going to get the ball.”