GROTON – Brevin Fliehs is a rare breed when it comes to sports. Not only is the Groton senior an accomplished athlete in three different activities, he somehow manages to flourish in two completely opposite sports during the same season.

This past week, Fliehs finished in the top 12 at the Hub City Invitational Golf Tournament and three days later led the Tigers football team with 11 tackles.

Fliehs admits he has a demanding schedule, but he finds a way to make it work and also finds a way make an impact.

“It’s really a lot,” Fliehs said of balancing school and two sports at the same time. “So like right now, I have school, then football practice usually gets done around 6, and if I want to, I’ll find time to golf for a little bit after that.”

The schedules work out so that he never has two sporting events on the same day, but sometimes it leaves little margin for error.

“I’d have a golf meet say on Thursday and then it’s pretty far away, so I might miss football practice,” Fliehs said. “Thursday football practices are usually pretty important right before a game. I just try to get back as a soon as I can on those days.”

There was one rare exception where he missed a football practice entirely and for good reason.

Fliehs helped to lead Groton to its first ever Northeast Conference boys’ golf championship earlier this season.

“I did stay there,” Fliehs said of remaining at the golf tourney. “I did not go to football practice that day. I stayed with the (golf) team and had a lot fun.”

Fliehs excels at both football and golf despite the sports being about as opposite as possible. One features reckless abandon and a ton of energy, the other complete silence and total concentration.

“For football it’s more like really exciting and just getting pumped up kind of thing,” Fliehs said “and then when I go to golf, I’m just trying to calm myself down, because that’s how golf works.”

So how is Fliehs able to get his emotions to coincide with each sport?

“Some of it’s music. I listen to a lot of music,” Fliehs said. “I kind of get that to get in the right mood or whatever.”

His selection for golf is easy country, his pick for football is hard rock.

Fliehs wasn’t sure he could do both sports at the same time in high school, so he opted not to play football his freshman year.

“I just thought that golf and football would have been way too much at the same time,” Fliehs said, “but I tried it my sophomore year and I’ve just been rolling with it.”

Groton football coach Shaun Wanner has benefitted from that decision.

“Brevin’s a versatile athlete that’s had a lot of success in the three sports he participates in,” Wanner said. “I’m glad I got Brevin to come out for football when he was a sophomore.”

While Fliehs plays a key role in both football and golf, he said his personal favorite is baseball, where he helped to lead the American Legion team to the State B tournament last summer.

Fliehs is a standout shortstop who fields any ball hit near him.

“He has very good instincts and a quick reaction time,” said Groton baseball coach Seth Erickson. “He can dive all over and still get up to throw someone out on the bases, whether he’s in the infield or the outfield.”

Erickson is also an assistant football coach for the Tigers, so he gets a chance to see Fliehs use his athleticism on both the diamond and the gridiron.

“He’s very fast. He turns doubles into triples with ease,” Erickson said. “He also has this sense of control of his body during football where he can avoid hits, but also can lay a smack on you.”

Fliehs said he spends a lot of time in the gym gearing up for his trio of sports. He credits his dad, Jarod, for his knowledge of how to compete in all three.

“My dad has taught me pretty much almost everything I know,” Fliehs said. “He’s a huge part of all this.”

As Fliehs heads into his senior year, he has already felt a bit of finality to his routine. He knows that his days are coming to an end, especially in football.

“There is a difference, because I only have so many more football games left,” Fliehs said. “I can golf the rest of my life, but football is kind of that thing where like once it’s done, it’s done.”

He has specific goals for each of his sports this year. For starters, he wants the football squad to advance deep into the playoffs.

“I’d say for football we just have to make a run in the playoffs, try to win a few playoff games,” Fliehs said. “Then for golf I’d say top 10, top 5 at state would be awesome.”

For baseball, the goal would be to get back to the state tourney.

When asked about the possibility of adding yet another sport, Fliehs did not rule it out.

“I have thought about track, yes,” Fliehs said. “I have thought about doing it just for my last year, just to see what I could do, and have some fun, but we’ll see.”

In the meantime, Fliehs will do his best to continue to make a difference in each of his other sports, no matter what his teammates think of his demanding schedule.

“They also a think it’s a lot, too, but I just love doing all of them,” Fliehs said, “so I’m just going to keep doing it.”