Inside The Huskies

Huskies Extend Basketball Offer to a Papermaker

Ethan Harris hails from Southwest Washington, not usually a UW hotbed for players.
Dan Raley|
Ethan Harris from Camas has a UW offer.
Ethan Harris from Camas has a UW offer. | Harris

Great basketball players can come from just about anywhere, as long as the ball goes in the basket, which is what French Lick, Indiana, demonstrated when it unleashed Larry Bird on the rest of the world and he used his modest background as a springboard to the NBA and legendary status.

That said, it's been more than a half century since the University of Washington made a determined effort to put a scholarship in the hands of someone from really off the beaten path, since it pulled a highly accurate 6-foot-2 guard named John McKnight out of Battle Ground and brought him to Montlake.

McKnight was a 28.6-point scorer who was considered the state's top recruit anywhere in 1972, signed with the Huskies and lasted just 19 games before he packed up and went home -- with coach Marv Harshman publicly wishing he would come back.

Now comes 6-foot-8 Ethan Harris from the shores of the Columbia River, from Camas High School, from the team that quaintly answers to the nickname Papermakers.

On Monday, Harris, considered the state's top player in some circles, received an offer from Danny Sprinkle's Husky staff, with everyone just now catching on to this red-haired recruit from the summer circuits.

He holds offers from New Mexico, Saint Louis, Oregon State, Boise State, Colorado State and others as his basketball reputation begins to spread.

Harris was never better than on January 14, 2025, when he came up with 32 points, 12 rebounds, 9 steals, 7 blocks and 4 assists in a 82-68 victory over Skyview. Hey, save some stats for someone else.

In a 75-55 win over Portland's Roosevelt High, he had 25 points, 7 blocks, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals to join what people were calling the 5X5 club, hitting that minimum number in all of those categories.

For a 23-7 Camas team, he averaged 18.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3 assists per outing, while shooting 58 percent from the floor.

He helped the Papermakers finish sixth in the 4A state tournament, their highest tourney showing in school annals.

As a junior, he was named both Greater Helens League MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.

The Vancouver Columbian sized him up this way.

While rapidly expanding Camas, a suburb east of Vancouver, is known more as a football town, Harris is fast putting it on the map as a must-see basketball stop for recruiters.

French Lick has nothing over this place.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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