Markus Ramos is one of those throwback guys, the type of clean-cut, smiling athlete you can picture wearing his varsity jacket and hanging out with friends at the ice cream parlor.

Times change, but the archetype remains and Ramos is it. The Campbell senior is a pitcher in the spring and a wide receiver in the fall, and even more than his athletic ability, it’s his selflessness, gregarious personality and positive attitude that shine through.

Well, that’s the first thing the Oregon Ducks saw.

Listen to the way Ramos, himself, tells it: “Oregon reached out to me. They liked my personality, that I like to have fun and that I like to work hard, that I like to talk and that off the field I’m always trying to help out. Even when I’m not playing, I’m still finding a way to help out. And then … they love the way I play ball.”

Ramos, who will fulfill a longtime dream when he suits up as a freshman in a Ducks baseball uniform next spring, is the confident type who, despite his youth, appears to already know how to navigate the world.

“I always watched Oregon football and baseball, and when I looked into the school, I saw how beautiful it was and wanted to go there,” he said. “Between my sophomore and junior year, I started to get looked at by colleges. When Oregon contacted me, I was shell-shocked.”

Major league interest

At 6 feet 3 and with a fluid motion, the right-hander is also getting looked at by major league teams.

“I tell people I’m 6-4, but I’m actually 6-31⁄2,” he said. “My doctor told me I will be growing until I’m 21. If I grow an inch or two, it will increase my wing span and help me out that much more.”

Ramos also made his mark as a top receiver for the Sabers football team, despite playing on a run-oriented offense.

“It’s been football, straight into baseball, then summer (travel) ball, back into football, a constant cycle,” he said. “Football was more of a hobby that I love to do. I knew senior year that there was a 99 percent chance that that was the last time I would play football. I used it as motivation. My coaches and my dad have always said that baseball would be my future.”

A helping family

In school, Ramos took a liking to psychology and sociology, and — keeping with the helping out theme — wants to be a therapist.

“I have amazing parents (Mark and Manni Ramos of Ewa Beach),” he said. “My mom was always one to help out, my dad always helps out if there’s any kind of trouble. I watch the news all the time and am on social media. I see stuff that goes on in this world. I think that if I can do something, my small difference can change someone else’s life.”

Having been told by many people that he’s a “thinker,” Ramos is a film aficionado who loves the classics, including “Citizen Kane” and “Pulp Fiction.”

“I’ve seen more than 300 movies, not counting the ones I go see in the theater,” said Ramos, who has a growing list of titles to watch.

It’s likely that his athletic ability came from his father, who was a star high school athlete in the 1980s.

“My dad was a beast for Campbell,” Markus said. “My grandma saved all of his newspaper write-ups. I have a lot, but he has three million more.”

Burning desire to win

Ramos and the rest of the Sabers (14-1) are coming off their first loss of the season Saturday, 6-5 in eight innings to Kailua in the Oahu Interscholastic Association championship game, so now the fire is burning so deeply you can almost see the orange trim ablaze on Campbell’s black jerseys.

“That was probably the best game I’ve ever been in,” Ramos said. “It was a fistfight the whole way. They didn’t fold under pressure and neither did we. After the game, it was the first time I heard teammates say, ‘I can’t wait to practice Monday.’ We lost, but we’re coming back 10 times stronger. We have fire under us. We’re going to do anything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We really want to get vengeance.”

Ramos recalls the exact opposite of that agony from two seasons ago, when Campbell won the Division I state championship. He was a relief pitcher then, learning from star Ian Kahaloa, who is now in the Cincinnati Reds organization.

“Ian taught me from the first pitch to the last to pound the zone,” Ramos said. “That if you throw hard enough and throw strikes and hit spots, they’re not going to hit you. And he taught me my slider.”

Ironically, it was in mop-up duty that Ramos got noticed.

“Ian would pitch six innings and I would come in for the seventh,” he said. “All of a sudden (the scouts) went from seeing 98 miles per hour to my 88. That’s how I got my exposure.”

Keeping the faith

Ramos is a believer — in his team, his ability, his future, his friends and family. Believe in Ramos and you get paid back double.

“For the first game of the OIA tournament this year, Coach (Rory Pico) said at first he would look at matchups and decide on either me or (fellow pitcher) Jamin Kalaola to pitch the opener (an eventual 4-2 win over Kaiser),” Ramos said. “Then he said, ‘Screw it. We’re going with Markus. He’s been with us the longest. He’s the one who can get us to the next stage.’ That got me so fired up and the team so fired up and it had a big impact on my performance and Jamin’s performance. For football, Coach (Amosa Amosa) had the exact same speech for me. He told me he believed I would have a dramatic impact on the success of the team. That was big for me. That lit a fire under me.”