WASILLA, Alaska – Long before she became a pit bull with lipstick in politics, Sarah Palin had another moniker: Sarah Barracuda.

A tough defender and sturdy point guard, the Republican vice presidential candidate helped lead the girls’ basketball team at Wasilla High School to a state championship in 1982, grabbing a piece of hardwood lore in the small town that all but worships her.

No. 22 didn’t have a lot of natural ability when it came to basketball. Unlike the publicity tied to her ascent in politics of late, she didn’t get a lot of ink in Alaska’s newspapers when she played hoops.

As her senior season progressed, Palin got better, said Donald Teeguarden, Palin’s high school coach, and she learned from her mistakes.

None would be more important than when Palin’s Warriors played Anchorage’s Service High School. With 30 seconds left in the title game, Palin, nursing a bad ankle, hit the front end of a one-and-one but missed the second.

It was her only point of the game, but it was enough.

“She made the free throw that more or less iced the game,” Teeguarden said.

While campaigning, Palin has said the lessons learned while playing basketball have served her well in life.

“I’ve said this before, that everything I ever needed to know I learned on the basketball team,” she said. “All about setting goals and working hard and having self-discipline and knowing what strengths were in the team members and then assembling those team members and tasking the team to fulfill missions. That’s what you learn in sports.”