Palo Alto High School, Jeremy Lin's Alma Mater, Celebrates Star Knicks Player

WATCH: A Look Back At Jeremy Lin's High School Days

Before he was the most-talked about and celebrated player on the New York Knicks -- and before "Linsanity" was a household term -- Jeremy Lin was a kid with hoop dreams who played basketball at Palo Alto High School and led his team to statewide victory in 2006. Now, Lin's former high school is proud of and inspired by Lin's phenomenal success.

Palo Alto senior guard Alec Wong told Yahoo! News: “He was a great player in high school, but I don’t think anyone could have imagined this. Everyone takes pride in it and is proud that he is from here. … Even a lot of non-athletes.”

As a high school senior, Lin led his team to become California Division II champions, and also earned California Division II Player of the Year honors with an average of 15.1 points, 7.1 assists and 6.2 rebounds. He also maintained a 4.2 GPA and chose to attend Harvard over Stanford or Cal.

And no one could be prouder than his former varsity coach, Peter Diepenbrock. Jeremy remains close with the coach who helped him get his start in the game, and even sent him a birthday text last week! Lin has also stayed in touch with many of his former Palo Alto teammates, a handful of whom came to Madison Square Garden to see Lin lead the Knicks to defeat the Dallas Mavericks.

Diepenbrock told The Daily Beast: "He just has an extremely strong will, and he exerts his will on every game that he’s in. At Palo Alto, he did it very well. And then he had the opportunity at Harvard—and became the best player in the Ivy League. And then, fortunately, he had the opportunity to get on an NBA team and get a chance to play. It’s hard to take a guess at how strong a human spirit is. But Jeremy’s is obviously extremely strong.”

Are you inspired by Jeremy's "Linderella story"? Share your thoughts in the comments below or tweet @HuffPostTeen!

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