ARVADA — If everyone loves a winner, everyone’s probably head over heels about Alex Buchmann.
The senior at Faith Christian High School wins. At almost everything. Competition is what the 18-year-old is about. Results are what he gets.
Buchmann, who will lead the Eagles’ football team into today’s Class 2A quarterfinals against Kent Denver, has been part of three different state titles in team sports — all before his senior year.
He was a starting safety on Faith Christian’s 2A football championship team in 2009. He came off the bench to help cap the Eagles’ 3A basketball title, their fourth in a row, this past March. And in May, as Faith Christian’s leadoff hitter and an outfielder, he was vital to his team winning the 3A baseball crown.
Buchmann, now the Eagles’ 6-foot, 175-pound quarterback, realizes how fortunate he has been. Not everyone wins. Somehow he does.
“I’m just competitive. I just have a drive to win,” he said. “You never go out and play to lose. I think it was (NFL Hall of Fame coach Vince) Lombardi who said, ‘Why play if you don’t win?’ “
Buchmann has considered the odds and can’t come to a reasonable explanation. When considering that he hasn’t won an individual event in golf or tennis, Buchmann knows he finished first with others.
“I’ve been blessed with this extremely strong group of seniors,” he said. “You can’t do it without them. We’re a band of brothers.”
By the time he graduates, he could walk away with a half-dozen team titles and no one at Faith Christian would be surprised.
Eagles football coach Blair Hubbard said he sees Buchmann’s will to win, including when he hits a blocking sled.
“He’s always pushing guys, but not in a pushy way,” Hubbard said. “It’s in a competitive way. He’ll say, ‘Hey, I can beat you in this’ and it raises the level of practice.”
The coach said he’s sure it’s because Buchmann comes from “that kind of family.” His father, B.J., played football at Dickinson State in North Dakota. He also coached in college and was involved in semi-pro in Europe, where the younger Buchmann said B.J. “taught a bunch of Swedish guys how to play football.”
Alex’s mother, Nan, and an aunt played basketball at Oral Roberts University.
“My mom pushes me so much,” Buchmann said. “She’ll say, ‘It’s Sunday, Alex, and you have to make 100 shots.’ “
The family has spirited, even heated games of pingpong and Buchmann somehow finds time to maintain a 3.4 grade-point average and participate in speech and debate.
“You can take a competitive edge to anything,” Buchmann said.
How does he find the time?
“You can always find free time,” he said.
And don’t get him started on fantasy football.
“Every week with our friends we’re talking trades that we’re making and Alex thinks he has the best team,” Eagles wide receiver-defensive back Nolan Beasley said. “He’s a natural-born leader, there’s no about about it. The best I’ve played with.”
Buchmann allows that football is his real love, “baseball’s a great sport” — he was the catcher in a perfect game as a freshman — and he can’t turn away from basketball.
“I’ve always played three sports, and coming into high school was no different,” he said. “The second I’m done with one, I’m on to the next.”
It sits well with the Faith Christian coaching staff, which is used to overlaps from one season to another. Such is the price when a school’s best athletes are two- and three-sporters. Eagles basketball coach Andrew Hasz will gladly pay it.
“Most definitely,” Hasz said. “(Buchmann) works hard in practice, and he’ll bring the intensity. We like getting guys like Alex back. I love it if they get all the way through. It makes it interesting and a good kind of interesting.”
Buchmann has thrown for 2,012 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushed for 396 yards and five scores. Kent Denver coach Scott Yates, whose team downed the Eagles in the regular season 23-13, is aware of Buchmann’s abilities.
“He’s very competitive and obviously knows how to win,” Yates said. “He has been around winning and is a threat to both run and pass. He appears to have command of his leadership role and certainly is somebody who has proven his worth to his team.”
Buchmann, who proudly states that he was there when Tim Tebow addressed a local group, agrees it’s fair question to ask if he if he can run his sports table as a 12th-grader.
He threw for 345 yards in the first half of Week 9 against Bishop Machebeuf, which ranks second in state history, according to records. His physical presence and speed will help in basketball. And he’d like to add pitching — he’s a knuckleballer — to his baseball repertoire, which includes an RBI single and run scored in a two-run victory in the final.
“Can we do it again?” Buchmann asked. “It’s always there. You compete to win and you don’t compete for second place.
“This is my senior year and you have one shot, so you just want to drop the past. You have one life, so you have a one-shot mentality. It pushes me.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
