PUKALANI — Naighel Calderon had a busy day Saturday.

It began with his appearance in the Life Champion Bowl, an all-star game for college-qualified football players in their senior season held at King Kekaulike Stadium.

A couple hours later, Calderon played for his Lanai High School basketball team in a preseason game against Maui High.

In a few months, his final season of Pine Lads athletics will take place on the baseball field.

Needless to say, Calderon is a young man with options, and he appeared to expand them in the last few days as the lone participant from Lanai in the LCB.

“It was amazing, it was a blast, something new, meeting new people,” Calderon said after he caught a pass in the game for a 7-yard gain that gave his team a first down and made four tackles as a defensive back. “Definitely learned a lot — that’s the best part: learning.”

Calderon opened some eyes during five LCB practices and in the game itself.

He was a key member of the Lanai team that shared the Maui Interscholastic League eight-player championship with Molokai this season.

“It’s my senior year, the flashbacks, it’s a big thing,” Calderon said. “It’s the legacy that we are building, what we leave when we leave — I want the younger generations to look up to me or my fellow peers.”

Being one of 15 Maui County players in the LCB game, it certainly felt like he left an impression on the 13 college coaches in attendance.

“I knew him from before and I knew that he did all these different sports, but I never knew he was as talented as he is, as I saw today,” Baldwin running back Bishop Wickes said. “He actually surprised me a lot with the skill he brought to the table, his speed, just everything. He actually surprised me a lot.

“He competed, he kept up, there was nobody that was above his skill level. He represented very well.”

Wickes had an 11-yard run for a first down late in the game that helped the Aina team beat the Aloha team 9-7. Wickes is a returning starter for the Baldwin soccer team that is the defending state champion — he, like many of the players in the game, is undecided about what sport he will do in college.

One of Calderon’s school options is NCAA Division II Sonoma State for baseball.

“The whole part about me playing sports is to create different avenues for me to get to college, the next level,” Calderon said. “Right now, it’s whatever route gives me the best offer. Pave the road and I will take it. I do believe that I showcased all my skills. Nothing was left out.”

His speed may be his best asset for whatever sport he ends up choosing. Calderon said his cumulative grade-point average is currently 3.4 and that he has been timed at 4.3 seconds for the 40-yard dash.

Kamehameha Maui standout Tristan Catan played on two youth baseball all-star teams with Calderon in the past.

“He’s an amazing athlete,” Catan said. “This week we were sleeping in gyms, so we played a lot of basketball and he is unbelievably good. His speed is phenomenal. I remember him at a baseball camp on Oahu and they just asked him to keep hitting so they could time him on the bases — it’s not something you can teach.

“I’d say he’s one in a billion. Just an amazing athlete. He’s arguably the fastest guy here, out of 94 of us.”

Reggie Torres, a former state champion coach for Kahuku, was the head coach for Calderon’s Aina team on Saturday.

“Naighel’s a good athlete and a great kid,” Torres said. “He made some good plays for us today — he made a big first down for us on a run-after-catch play. A couple more times he was open, but we couldn’t get the ball to him.”

Torres said Calderon is a hidden gem — Lanai has less than 150 students in its high school ranks. Torres was happy to pick Calderon when he saw his name on the LCB eligibility list.

“You don’t see that because we don’t get to see him,” Torres said. “I knew Naighel because we went there to do a clinic. He was young, he was a quarterback with long hair. He told me, ‘Coach, you remember me?’ He was one of the top athletes there — when we did the clinic you could just tell, ‘Boy, this kid’s an athlete.’ He belonged here.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com