Alex Lapuyade sent his résumé to any Bay Area professional sports team that wanted him to be part of its public relations staff.

So, when the Oakland Raiders were the first to get back to him, the 2005 St. Helena High School graduate  answered their call as quickly as he could.

Lapuyade is beginning his junior year at Chico State University and has since switched his major from business to communication studies with a minor in journalism and public relations.

The Raiders recently wrapped up training camp in Napa, and Lapuyade was present for all three weeks the Raiders were in training camp. He worked the team’s exhibition victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Aug. 11.

With school beginning, however, Lapuyade will be limited to working Raiders home games now that the team has broken camp. The organization offered him a chance to do so and he intends to take advantage of that chance.

“I don’t do anything but watch football on Sundays anyway,” Lapuyade quipped. “So I figured I might as well come down and get more experience.”

“It’s been by far the best job I have ever had. I’ve learned a lot. The experience has been invaluable.”

Lapuyade plans on sticking with public relations as a career now that he has gained experience working alongside Raiders public relations director Mike Taylor along with assistants Artie Gigantino and Brian Proctor.

“I figure that I don’t get to play sports too much anymore,” said Lapuyade, who played football at St. Helena. “I can’t really find anything else that I’m that passionate about. I figure if you do something that you like, you’ll have a good time. Football and sports in general is a good fit.”

The Raiders invited Lapuyade for an interview at their headquarters in Alameda and one day later, he was offered a spot.

Lapuyade has many duties which include taking calls from media members and setting up interviews around the players’ and coaches’ practice schedule.

“I feel like I know a few of the beat guys pretty well,” Lapuyade said. “They do their job, they’re respectful. When I first came into this I thought I’d have to be chauffeuring people around but they know what they’re supposed to do.”

Lapuyade had the chance to interview wide receivers Ronald Curry and Travis Taylor for feature stories in the team’s Gameday magazine. 

“When I first got here I was starstruck,” Lapuyade said. “You kind of idolize these people and put them on this upper echelon but they are just regular guys like you and I. A lot of them are really down to earth. When I talked to Ronald Curry we talked about his days at North Carolina playing basketball with other players who are now in the NFL or NBA.”

Lapuyade added that while he is still trying to get more comfortable in his role, the ease gets greater with each experience. Lapuyade stayed with his father Roger, who resides in Napa. On a typical day, Lapuyade arrived at the office at 8 a.m. to do little things such as checking faxes, getting updated rosters ready, attending practice, making sure media members were in place, passing out rosters to guests, and “a lot of copy making.”

“The experience of going to the preseason game and being in the pressbox allowed me to gain an appreciation for how many things go into an NFL game that you don’t think about as a fan,” Lapuyade said. “There’s probably 100 media guys up there from everyone. You’ve also got scouts from every NFL team. People are compiling stats. There’s so much work that goes into it. It takes a lot of cooperation from the franchises that make the NFL successful.”