How Mason Foster went from unknown to Huskies hero

His instincts on Mason Foster's potential had long since proven accurate.

Still, as Al Avila, Foster's high-school football coach in California, watched his former player pull off the Miracle Heard Round Montlake on Saturday, he recalled the days when he couldn't get college recruiters interested in his star player.

"I'd tell people, 'Man, this kid can play. Why is no one taking a chance on him or looking at him?' " Avila said. "They just wouldn't bite. He was like the best-kept secret around."

Foster's not a secret anymore. Not after Saturday, when the junior turned in one of the most memorable plays in Huskies history. His 37-yard interception of a deflected pass with 2:37 left lifted Washington to an improbable 36-33 Pac-10 victory over Arizona.

The interception was the No. 2 Play of the Day on ESPN's SportsCenter and helped earn Foster the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week award.

Foster doesn't mind the attention, but he also remembers those days when he wasn't getting any.

"Coming from a small city where a lot of guys didn't make it, I try to take it upon myself to show that we can do it from Seaside," he said.

Until coming to UW, Foster lived his entire life in Seaside, which has a population of about 32,000 on California's Monterey Peninsula. He grew up in a tight-knit family, with both of his grandmothers living two blocks away.

"He was real blessed to have a strong family background," Avila said.

Avila remembers seeing Foster in youth baseball leagues.

"He was a little, pudgy kid hitting baseballs all over the place," the coach recalled of the player who is now 6 feet 2, 244 pounds. "But then he just grew into his body."

Foster played wherever Seaside needed him, including quarterback as a senior. He passed for two touchdowns and ran for another as the school of 1,100 won the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Central Coast Section small-school championship.

Still, despite earning an armload of high-school honors, college recruiters were skeptical.

Yet former Huskies assistant Tim Lappano, remembering a few past sleepers from the Monterey Peninsula, decided to check out Seaside. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"I asked his coach who was recruiting him and he said nobody," Lappano said two years ago. "I saw the kid physically and I said, 'Wow, this kid's a Pac-10 football player.' "

No other Pac-10 school offered Foster a scholarship until word spread that UW had. Even nearby San Jose State, where Foster's father had gone to school, wasn't initially sold.

Only when Mason Foster gave a verbal commitment to Washington, did the Spartans finally make an offer.

"I had good years all through high school and they didn't want to take a chance on me," Foster said. "I lived 30 minutes down the street and they didn't offer me a scholarship."

He was among the lowest-rated members of UW's Class of 2007, unrated nationally at his position by most recruiting services. But he ended up starting four games as a true freshman and became entrenched at weakside linebacker last year, when he led the Pac-10 with 8.75 tackles per game.

He moved to strongside linebacker this year — meaning he lines up on the side of the tight end, and usually near the line of scrimmage — when E.J. Savannah returned to the team.

"The coaches put me in a good position to use my athletic ability," Foster said of the switch, which allows him to pressure the quarterback more. He also has a team-high five pass breakups.

Defensive coordinator Nick Holt thinks Foster's experience as a high-school quarterback helps. Some linebackers he coached at USC, such as current Seahawk Lofa Tatupa, were also high school quarterbacks.

"They are football smart and they understand concepts better than most," Holt said.

Saturday, it paid off in a play that should be remembered as long as football is played at Washington. Foster gambled a little, deciding to jump a bubble screen Arizona had run successfully a dozen or so times on the night.

"I just decided to make a play, take a shot," Foster said.

A low pass bounced off Arizona receiver Delashaun Dean's hand, then his shoe, and into the waiting arms of Foster, who sprinted down the sideline for the score.

He has heard Dean say the ball hit the turf. "He knows it didn't hit the ground," Foster said, "but he's going to say that."

And even in his most famous moment, his hometown wasn't far away. As he typically does before every game, Foster painted his face in eye black before the Arizona contest, the look captured in slow-motion replays that pop up again and again. It's to keep opponents from being able to read his eyes, he says, but also a tradition he brought with him from Seaside.

"That's just from high school," he said, "To show everybody that I'm still the same guy, just different number, different school."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com.

UW @ Arizona State, 7:15 p.m., FSN