Doing it all: Cabell Buechner set the standard for Utah Valley lacrosse in 2025
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- Skyridge junior Cabell Bueckner is the 2025 Daily Herald Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
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- Skyridge junior Cabell Bueckner (right) is the 2025 Daily Herald Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
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- Skyridge junior Cabell Bueckner (99) is the 2025 Daily Herald Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
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- Skyridge junior Cabell Bueckner is the 2025 Daily Herald Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
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- Skyridge junior Cabell Bueckner is the 2025 Daily Herald Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
Cabell Buechner didn’t score the most goals in the state starring for Skyridge this season, nor did he pass out the most assists or cause the most turnovers. But perhaps no other player was consistently near the top in just about every statistical category, making the junior midfielder our All-Valley boys lacrosse MVP for the 2025 season.
After sitting out most of last season due to injury, Buechner made certain to make up for his time away, and then some. This season saw him score 65 goals, pass out 51 assists and cause 53 turnovers for the Falcons although the stat he take the most pride in is snatching up ground balls where he led the entire state with 154.
“For me, ground balls is all about effort,” Cabell said. “I’m not a faceoff guy, and faceoff guys usually get the most ground balls, but my goal out there is to always be faster than the other guy and that really helps me dig out more ground balls than anyone else.”
It’s a facet of his game his mother, Michelle Buechner, takes a lot of pride in.
Michelle comes from a rich lacrosse background, having played the sport for Brigham Young University before eventually becoming Skyridge’s girls lacrosse head coach. She’s done well to impart her love of the game to her children, creating a competitive and fun atmosphere in the home that each of them has benefitted from.
“He’s best at just being scrappy,” Michelle said. “If you watch him play you can see he’s really focused on getting ground balls and the stats back it up. He’s a player who is going to run harder and hit you harder so he can get those 50-50 balls. He’s all heart and effort.”
Although Cabell has embraced the sport of lacrosse completely, the process of getting there took some time.
Despite growing up in a lacrosse-crazed family, and having played the sport since he was in the first grade, it wasn’t until he was a seventh-grader when he fully embraced lacrosse, putting other sports aside. Up to that point soccer was his main focus before the process of trying out for elite club teams in both soccer and lacrosse pointed him directly toward the game near and dear to his parent’s heart.
“I made the lacrosse team the first year I tried out, and didn’t make the soccer team, so that switched my entire focus,” Cabell related. “It was a great decision. I love it and mom and dad have definitely been happy about it.”
Michelle readily noted Cabell’s change in focus of which he, along with the Skyridge program, has benefitted from immensely.
“It was then when he really discovered that he had a love and aptitude for the game and it’s been all lacrosse for him since,” Michelle said. “I think lacrosse combines the best of the other sports. It requires a high IQ to play it effectively and Cabell has become a real student of the game. He’s had success in other sports, but lacrosse is where his heart is.”
His love and passion for the game earned him Skyridge varsity team MVP honors as a freshman and into an otherwise frustrating sophomore year where he sat out most of the season due to injury. Just before region play Cabell incurred an MCL tear, forcing him to miss the meat of his team’s schedule before returning for the postseason in 2024.
“It was really annoying seeing us lose by one or two goals and knowing I could have made up for that, maybe, if I was playing,” Cabell said. “So being able to play again this year has really strengthened my drive for the sport and my love for it. I definitely appreciated every moment I had out there this year.”
And he absolutely made the most of every opportunity.
Game in and game out Cabell literally did it all for the Falcons, leading them to a breakout season and a spotless 18-0 record for the regular season. It’s that team stat that Cabell takes the most pride in, citing a strong team chemistry and dominant midfield play as the drivers of this year’s team success.
“The biggest thing has been our team chemistry,” Cabell said. “Coach (Bart) Butterfield has done an amazing job, getting us all together when we were all ninth-graders and building a really awesome core and work ethic among all of us. So it’s been leading up to this past year when it all really clicked.”
Cabell hopes to keep things clicking for his final season at Skyridge before perhaps playing at the collegiate level, where he’s looking to play for an out-of-state program. But as for the 2025 season, and what he meant for a team that ran undefeated during the regular season, there’s little to no question that Cabell set the bar for outstanding lacrosse play within Utah County.
