Versatility Keeps His Options Wide Open : Prep football: Los Alamitos’ Tyler Cashman, taking after his father, does it all on the field.

Tyler Cashman of Los Alamitos High School can do just about anything on a football field.

Offensively, Cashman splits time between wide receiver and tight end. He has caught 13 passes for 164 yards in two games. Defensively, he moves to free safety, where last week he intercepted a pass and returned it 91 yards for a touchdown.

He has been the team’s punter for the past two seasons and this year added the job of kicking off.

Cashman’s versatility comes naturally. His father, Pat, played roverback, cornerback and defensive halfback and also punted and kicked for USC in 1966-67.

Pat Cashman was one of the heroes in USC’s 21-20 victory over UCLA that gave the Trojans a berth in the 1967 Rose Bowl. Cashman intercepted a short pass by Bruin quarterback Gary Beban and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown that longtime Trojan fans still talk about.

“I have pictures of that play hanging on the wall in my bedroom,” Tyler said. “My relatives and my dad’s friends still talk about that play whenever they get together.”

Lately, Tyler has been making headlines that have attracted college scouts from USC, UCLA, Colorado and California. He has two boxes filled with about 250 recruiting letters from major colleges. Tonight, he will be on center stage at 7:30, when Los Alamitos meets Villa Park at Fred Kelly Stadium in Orange.

The only question about his future is what position he will play in college. Cashman has been projected as tight end, split end or free safety by scouts.

“He’s everything a college coach is looking for,” Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes said. “He runs, catches and blocks as well as anyone we’ve had here. Tyler made one of the best catches I’ve ever seen last week against Servite.

“He ran a streak pattern and the pass was under thrown. The defender was with him stride for stride, so Tyler went down to his knees, reached in front of the defender’s feet and caught the ball.”

Cashman’s athletic skills helped him become a world traveler as a youngster. He toured Japan for a month with a youth baseball team in 1984 and played a game in Tokyo’s Giant Stadium.

He went to Europe for a month to compete for an American club soccer team in Switzerland, West Germany, Holland, France and England when he was 11.

“Sports has pretty much been my life,” Cashman said. “My dad was my coach for most of my youth teams and my biggest supporter. He taught me how to play football, baseball, basketball and soccer.”

These days, Tyler Cashman is teaching youngsters to play. Cashman, a senior, is helping 24 preschoolers, ages 2 to 5, as an elective course.

“We work with the teacher helping to plan lessons, assisting or observing,” Cashman said. “It’s a lot of fun. The first thing I did was check out all the toys.”

Cashman has a 3.4 grade-point average and said he will likely major in business in college.

But he also said he hasn’t ruled out a career in baseball. He has been a starting infielder for Los Alamitos the past two years and played last winter for a Toronto Blue Jays scout team.

“Playing two sports in college would be a lot of work,” Cashman said. “I’ve played baseball since I was 7 and didn’t start playing football until I got to high school. But football is my first choice.”

Los Alamitos (1-1) has been inconsistent this season after compiling a 52-9 record over the past five seasons. Cashman said it will take some time for the Griffins’ offense to gel.

“The pace has slowed down and our running game has been unable to get going with LaQuan (Beckton) hurt,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll be ready by the time league starts.”

Cashman had seven receptions for 100 yards in a 7-3 victory over Marina. He got most of his yardage on short pass plays that he turned into big gainers playing as a tight end.

Last week, he made the biggest play of his career when he intercepted a pass at the Los Alamitos’ nine and returned it for a touchdown.

“It was the most exciting play of my life,” he said. “The receiver was running a corner route and the ball was overthrown. I ran over to help with coverage and it felt like I was catching a pass until I turned around and ran the other way.”

Later, Barnes was surprised to hear that Cashman had gotten so excited about the interception.

“Tyler is unflappable,” Barnes said. “He never gets nervous or wound up about anything. Sometimes, he appears to just stride through life without a care in the world.”