Graham Bath, a fifth-year senior and leader with the University of British Columbia's men's basketball team, has been described as a fiery player.

A summer job he took a couple of years ago makes that aforementioned adjective a literal one.

The 6'5" 230-pound forward, who has helped UBC capture three CIS medals in as many years, spent a summer fighting forest fires near Burns Lake.

Once their second year at UBC ended, Bath and then-teammate Brett Leversage applied for positions as unit crew members with the BC Forest Service.

The 2007 Brookswood Secondary grad picks up the story:

"The first two years of basketball at UBC were intense and kept me within a days travel of Vancouver for the summer's entirety," Bath said. "When the opportunity came to get away, see the beauty the province has to offer, and do so while maintaining a required fitness level, I eagerly accepted. I came back with a renewed fervour for basketball and a new understanding of hard work."

Bath described the experience as "a great time."

"I hope to return sometime in the future," he said.

Through the years, Bath and the T-Birds have come tantalizingly close to the Holy Grail of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) basketball - a national gold medal - but have yet to reach it.

Last season, the Thunderbirds lost to TWU in the CIS semifinals before beating Saskatchewan in the consolation final to pick up the bronze medal.

In 2010, UBC lost to Saskatchewan in the national final and had to settle for CIS silver.

In 2009, the team lost to Carleton in the CIS championship game and finished in second place.

"Yeah, we've been close," Bath said.

This marks Bath's final season, and the team currently possesses a 20-7 overall record. UBC is 12-4 in Canada West conference play.

Bath, who is averaging 6.7 points a game and 3.5 rebounds per game this season, has a simple, tongue-in-cheek description for his time at UBC: "long."

"I've played basketball with some of these guys for one year and some for eight years," he said. "The early years were about learning from the older guys, and the later years have been about maintaining and furthering a disciplined and hard-nosed culture within the team."

As his final season with UBC comes to a close, Bath said he can only hope the impact he made remains.

"For me, I guess, if I was to take something from the five years, it would be the relationships made, not to sound cliché or anything," said Bath, who plans to graduate with a BA in Human Geography.

As far as his future beyond UBC goes, Bath said the plethora of possibilities keeps him searching for an answer.

Pre-UBC, there was basketball at Brookswood Secondary.

"That's where it all started," Bath recollected. "Only way to catch a ride to the school was with pops at 6: 45 a.m. - used to beat the janitors there and would have to wait till they opened up [the school]."

Bath said it didn't take long for the man he affectionately calls "Stew" (former Brookswood Secondary senior boys basketball head coach Kelsey Stewart) started helping him with his game.

"Next thing I knew it was Basketball BC and then a free education at UBC," Bath said. "Kind of strange to break it down so simply, but that's that way it happened."

Growing up in Langley, life was all about hockey and base-ball, Bath said, and he still loves both sports.

"I had reasonable success with both, making the rep teams and having them take me across the country and the continent," Bath said. "My uncle George played basketball at Western Ontario and he was always in my ear, along with my grandpa, asking if I'd started playing basketball yet. Eventually I did and realized the advantage of a contact sport history. After four years of throwing my weight around on the court with a little less... zeal, I ended up at UBC."

Bath doesn't visit his old alma mater, or hometown for that matter, very often anymore.

"I used to make it back to the 'Wood often but not in the last few years - the trips have been less frequent," he said. "I can only handle one or two nights with the old boys. They understand."

As for that fiery playing style, Bath likes to use the word "intense" for his demean-or on the court.

"Others would probably say 'irksome' or 'frustrating,'" he joked. "Over the years, the words that continue to be said seem to be 'hard worker' or 'he's got a good work ethic.' My dad is one of the hardest workers I know and my late Grandpa, Lang Cope, continues to inspire me."

sports@langleyadvance.com