Waterford — Ryan Bakken could be Exhibit A of The New High School Sports Mentality: Find a sport you're good at and specialize in it, attend all the camps and showcases and train for it 24/7/365, eschewing other endeavors all in the hope that college scholarship offer comes.

Bakken, the quarterback at Waterford High, does this football thing rather well. He has thrown for nearly 4,000 yards the last two seasons. He has 1,811 this year and 32 touchdown passes, leading Lancerville into the Class M playoffs Tuesday night. A colorful stat sheet. Numbers, numbers, everywhere. Surely, Bakken must travel the country with his own quarterback guru, right?

Nah. Football is merely Bakken's autumn avocation. When football ends, he'll trade in football coach John Strecker for basketball coach Bill Bassett. Then baseball coach Art Peluso. Indeed, Bakken is a renaissance guy, a throwback three-sport connoisseur who only enjoys every millisecond of being a high school athlete.

"I've never been a fan of just one sport," Bakken was saying Saturday morning as the Lancers prepared for Tuesday's playoff game against Granby/Canton. "Plus, it keeps me busy. You get to know different guys. It's high school. You'll never have another chance like this to play three sports in one year. It works your body better. You work more muscles. And keeps you in better shape."

Many high school coaches just wept tears of joy upon reading that sentence. A kid who gets it. A kid who harbors the old-school belief that high school exists for many reasons, not the least of which is to cram as many experiences into four years as possible. Then there's this: Many high schools don't have enough kids to sustain an inordinate number of one-sporters.

And it's not like Bakken's experiences in other sports have led him to depression. He's been a guard on the basketball team that's won two straight state titles and the third baseman on the baseball team that won last season's state championship. The Lancers have a chance to become the first school in CIAC history to win basketball, baseball and football titles in the same calendar year.

"Playing basketball and baseball have been great. I think I've learned a championship mentality," Bakken said. "Those practices we have in basketball and baseball are crisp. Everyone knows what's on the line and what's expected so we can make it to the state championship. That wasn't always the mentality here with football. It was never a perspective because we never thought it would happen. But I try to bring what I learned in the other sports here every day."

How's he doing? Just ask his head coach.

"He's so smart," Strecker said. "We give him a lot of responsibility in terms of pre-snap and post-snap reads. His percentage of being right is very high. The smartest kid I ever coached. Smarter than me, I know that. (Former Waterford quarterback) Spencer Hoagland is close, but I think Bakken's different because he's had two years to do it in the same offense."

Strecker, Bassett and Peluso are also smart enough not to monopolize Bakken's time. Or anyone else's. It's the espirit de corps that permeates the school and town. It's not about any one individual. It's about us. All of us.

"I wasn't around much in the summer for passing league because I was playing Legion," Bakken said. "We didn't do a lot in the summer together. A lot of the chemistry has developed in season. On defensive (practice) days, Sam (Menders), Payton (Sutman) and I would go with coach (Zeth) Nolda and coach Mike (Strecker) and do our own drills. Adjust to routes, scramble drills, anything to get to know each other better."

Maybe Bakken can lead the charge in and out of Waterford as a beacon for the fun associated with being a multi-sport athlete. Bakken is The Man in some sports and just a good teammate in others. Just the way you draw it up.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro