Patrick Mahomes may be country's best all-around athlete, and more

Whitehouse (Texas) senior Patrick Mahomes lost his last high school game on May 3 — a 4-3-baseball loss to Mansfield Legacy — and with it came the end of one of the best individual all-around athletic school years in the country.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound football, basketball and baseball star — the son of former Major League pitcher Pat Mahomes — led Whitehouse to landmark seasons with tremendous individual seasons.

They included:

* Being named the Texas State Football Player of the Year by the Associated Press. The dual-threat quarterback threw for 4,619 yards, ran for 940 more and accounted for 65 touchdowns as the Wildcats went 10-0 in the regular season, 12-1 overall and won their first district title.

"To be voted the best football player in the state of Texas is definitely saying something," said Whitehouse Athletic Director Richard Peacock, who presented Mahomes the prestigious award. "You definitely have to earn it and he did."

* In basketball, he led the Wildcats (28-7) three rounds into the playoffs by averaging more than 19 points per game and 8.3 rebounds. He could have scored much more, as he proved by dropping 49 in one game and 37 in a 58-51 regional win over Lovejoy.

"It's his third sport, but if he focused on it, there's no doubt he could be a Division I basketball player," Peacock said.

* In baseball, always his No. 1 sport, the four-year starter hit nearly .500, played a spotless centerfield and, of course, pitched. He fired a no-hitter with 16 strikeouts in a 2-1 win over Mount Pleasant and later the same day went 3-for-4 at the plate with a home run and knocked in three runs in a 10-3 win over Princeton.

"In four years, he's started at every position but catcher for us," Whitehouse coach Derrick Jenkins said. "He can do pretty much anything he wants to do on the baseball field. Plus he's the smartest baseball player I've ever coached. He's like having a coach out there."

Add it all up, and Mahomes might just equal the nation's best all-around athlete.

"In 38 years in the business, I've seen a lot of great athletes," Peacock said. "But he's as good as I've ever seen. What he's accomplished is amazing, but honestly more amazing might be what a great young man he is. How humble he is despite all the attention he receives really speaks to his character and upbringing.

"It's hard to separate what's more impressive. His athletic ability or character."

Options, options, options

Though his prep baseball career is over, the baseball chatter continues. He will almost certainly be selected in next month's Major League Baseball amateur draft, but where is anyone's guess.

With a 93 mph fastball and all that athleticism and instinct, he appears easily a top five-round pick.

But with his rapid rise in football success, something neither he nor anyone was counting on entering high school, he was offered and accepted a full football scholarship – and baseball – to Texas Tech. He had other football offers from Rice and Oklahoma State.

His football career (thank you Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston) might scare baseball scouts away.

Then again, a seven-figure signing bonus might cause Mahomes to shelf the football scholarship and two-sport college career.

"It (being a top draft pick) is definitely a possibility," Mahomes said. "If the offer is right, I could go that way. I know now right at this moment my plan is to play quarterback and play and pitch at Texas Tech. I look forward to that. But there's still a lot of talk and possibilities. I have to remain open."

With his dad by his side, Patrick will get great advice and experience.

"They have a great relationship," Jenkins said.

Pat pitched 12 seasons in the Majors and as a 6-1, 175-pound righthander, finished with a 42-39 career record mostly as a reliever.

He was also a three-sport Texas prep standout and was runner-up for the state's Mr. Basketball award. He accepted a basketball scholarship to Arkansas but opted for baseball when the Minnesota Twins drafted him in the sixth round.

Texas Tech football coach Kliff Kingsbury, of course, hopes Patrick gives the college gridiron a shot. He believes the young quarterback, who just began playing the position as a junior, has great potential.

"I really think he's just scratching the surface (at quarterback) with the time he played different sports throughout the year," Kingsbury told Sports Illustrated. "When he really focuses on football the majority of the time I think you're really going to see him take off in that position. … With his dad having that history of being a professional player it does (concern him), but we'll see how it shakes out. … He wants to come to college, but you never know how the money is going to be."

Big bat, strong arm, level head
No matter where he goes, the team will get a complete team player, said Jenkins and Peacock. Despite all the attention at a young age, and traveling the Major League circuit with his dad, Patrick was able to keep a level head.

He practiced and received infield tips from Pat's teammates Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, but always came back to Texas grounded and eager to play with his childhood friends.

"When you play with friends you've known since a little kid, it really helps," Patrick said.

Like Whitehouse football and baseball standout Ryan Cheatham, one of Patrick's best friends.

"He's just the same as he's always been," Cheatham said. "He definitely cares about us, the team, and not his draft status or highlight reel."

Though he kept YouTube followers busy for years in all sports. Like the fourth-and-15 play he made as quarterback in a playoff game from the opponent's 25. If he got stopped, the game and his team's season was over. SEE PLAY

"He steps back, looks all over the field, then takes off," Peacock said. "Three guys hit him at the 7, but he carries them all into the end zone. We win district."

Said Jenkins: "Last year in the playoffs, he goes behind third with a backhand stop and you think there's no way he could get the guy. But he makes a throw you just can't believe to get him. … As a sophomore, he threw a guy out at first from right field. … I can think of so many football plays where he's practically on the ground, but he makes plays. He's just that type of person and competitor."

Which is why he loves all three of the sports he's played at such a high level.

"I just love to compete," he said. "I'm definitely going to miss playing basketball."

Patrick's character is best demonstrated, Jenkins said, when he watches him around his own boys, Logan and Jackson, ages 8 and 6.

"He always plays with them and talks and listens," Jenkins said. "He'll play catch and help coach them. There's not a selfish bone in Patrick's body, which is very refreshing. Especially considering how gifted he is and how much attention he receives from the media and colleges."

That, Patrick says, is a reflection of his dad and mom Randi, and other family members. His family at Whitehouse will surely miss him. But he surely won't forget them either, he said.

"It's all been great here," he said. "All the friendships, all the success we had our senior season. I'll definitely miss it. So many people have been so good to me. And I'll miss my teammates and coaches the most."

The feelings are mutual.

"He's once-in-a-lifetime talent," Jenkins said. "He's a once-in-a-lifetime kid."