Vince Laino didn’t give a lot of thought to Kadeem Walcott the first time he saw the diminutive running back.

“I figured he was too small to be very good,” the Fort Hamilton head coach said of Walcott, who was a shade over five-feet at the time. “I didn’t think it mattered how athletic he was.”

Laino, like many others, soon found out just how good Walcott was. The junior, who now stands about 5-4, will have a chance to prove to anyone who hasn’t realized his skill already when the third-seeded Tigers face No. 1 Lehman at noon on Saturday at Midwood Field for the PSAL championship.

Walcott has already rushed for 450 yards and eight touchdowns in three playoff victories, the last of which was a 40-0 pasting of Wagner on Saturday in the semifinals. He is looking forward to the challenge.

“It’s been great,” Walcott said between drills during practice yesterday. “We know the school has never won this before and we want to be the first ones to get a championship.”

If 11-1 Fort Hamilton is able to hand 12-0 Lehman its first defeat of the season, it will likely be because of Walcott, who leads the PSAL in rushing attempts, a stat that shocked Laino.

“When he first started playing for us, we were unsure of how long he would last,” said Laino, who, like Lehman’s Carmine Colasanto, is looking for his first ring. “But last year, when he ran for over 1000 yards as a sophomore for us, we knew that durability was no longer an issue.”

The key, according to Laino, is Walcott’s vision. The coach also believes that he uses his size – or lack of – to his advantage. “You’ve got this small running back rushing behind this huge offensive line,” Laino said. “It’s easy for him to get lost back there.”

Walcott figures to get his toughest test against Lehman, but he is undaunted by the challenge.

“You never know when you’ll get another chance to get back here, so we want to win now,” Walcott said.

dan.martin@nypost.com