LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. — On a warm April day, Mark Sanchez walks into ProSport Performance & Therapy, his local gym, and straight into conversation. He talks with employees before heading to an open training table in the back of the room. Sanchez begins his preworkout routine, sticking four small circular pads across his right shoulder while attaching the cables of a Compex muscle stimulator. As the electrotherapy runs through his body, making him look like a science experiment, Sanchez provides a bolt of lightning.

“Coming to the Denver Broncos, this is a gift-wrapped opportunity. I believe in fate and destiny,” he said, his conversational tone turning serious. “There’s no excuse. I need to take full advantage. There’s nothing more important in my life than this.”

WATCH: What you need to know about new Broncos quarterback Mark Sanchez

“This” is the Broncos’ starting quarterback job. It remains the most high-profile occupation in Colorado, a position responsible for creating joy and anxiety for millions of fans. More than two months after winning Super Bowl 50, the Broncos don’t know who will be under center when they open their title defense Sept. 8 against the Carolina Panthers. Peyton Manning retired. Free agent Brock Osweiler defected to the Houston Texans.

In what general manager John Elway categorized as the first step in a process, he acquired Sanchez from the Philadelphia Eagles on March 11 for a conditional seventh-round draft pick. How Sanchez learned of the trade hints, in part, why the Broncos wanted him.

“Mark doesn’t have people around him who tell him how good he is. He’s a pro’s pro. Every little detail matters. He puts in the time, and that’s what he was doing on that day,” said longtime trainer Rick Stassi. “To see the expression on his face after he took that phone call — I will always remember how happy he was.”

Sanchez, 29, has been studying film at Broncos headquarters, working on pass routes with his teammates at Mission Viejo (Calif.) High School and building relationships. He isn’t trying to act like a starting quarterback but wants to be the starting quarterback, unfazed by talk of Denver potentially trading for San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick, Houston’s Brian Hoyer or Cleveland’s Josh McCown, or drafting a quarterback such as Paxton Lynch or Connor Cook.

“I don’t care who’s there. They are going to give me a fair shake. And if it’s a fair shot, I will bet on myself,” Sanchez said. “I will compete my butt off and be friendly and professional with whoever’s there. But I want this so bad. Since I was a little kid, I have been dreaming about a chance to win a Super Bowl.”

If Mark Sanchez the NFL quarterback elicits a note of caution — 37-35 record as a starter, and 84 interceptions — Mark Sanchez the person does not. This Southern California kid is rooted in family and grounded by his faith.

“You need to do it all out”

Growing up, Sanchez followed in the athletic footsteps of older brothers Brandon and Nick. Father Nick, a fire captain for three decades at Station No. 6 in Irvine, Calif., maintained a simple philosophy, telling his sons, “Whatever you are doing, school or sports, you need to do it all out.” Mark’s passion revealed itself when he was only 4. He worked as the ball boy as Nick, 14 years older, starred for Whittier Christian High.

“He was always around, carrying Nick’s helmet, running around the field. He would do wind sprints after the game,” said former Whittier Christian and longtime Monarch High coach Phil Bravo. “His dad would be out there throwing the ball with him. He loved to work. You could see that in Mark right away.”

Nick Sr. took a hands-on, unconventional approach to train his sons. Before Google provided templates for training sessions, he created elaborate drills with obstacles to develop mental and physical skills. The boys would practice until dark at a Pop Warner field — Mark began playing tackle football in second grade — then drive around and find a local park with lights to finish the sessions. These grooves so ingrained, Sanchez has performed versions of these drills while vacationing on a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, as well as on hunting trips.

“You never have to tell Mark he needs to work harder or work more,” said Joe Donohue, the owner of ProSports Physical Therapy & ProSport Stack Sports.

Basketball was Sanchez’s first love. He relished leading his youth teams in rebounds and fouls. His dad bought gadget glasses from a garage sale to help Mark with his dribbling.

“Oh, my God. I hated those glasses. Luckily, we only wore them in our backyard,” Sanchez said, laughing. “I had big hands and a good feel for the ball, but I wasn’t like a point guard, some baller dribbler. With these glasses, if you looked down, it hurt your neck. It was almost as bad as a dog with one of those cones on their head after coming from the vet. We would be dribbling and have to recite multiplication tables or spelling words.”

According to Sherry Ballantyne, Sanchez’s fifth-grade teacher at Trabuco Mesa Elementary in Rancho Santa Margarita, his dedication manifested itself in the classroom. Sanchez was in the gifted program, a straight-A student. His personality stood out. Kids gravitated toward him. He participated in student government. He was “genuine and authentic,” recalled Ballantyne, terms often used to describe Sanchez by those who know him.

“Mark was smart. But he cared about others,” Ballantyne said. “I remember when a student was bullied, Mark was the first one to step in and put an end to it.”

Sanchez maintains a friendship with Ballantyne and her husband, Mike. Sanchez bought athletic equipment for the elementary school, she said, and he frequently returned to talk to her students even as his football career blossomed at the University of Southern California.

“One time he came on a day they were taking a test,” Ballan- tyne said. “He grabbed the text book and said, ‘I remember this.’ And he went aisle by aisle giving the kids the answers. There were 34 kids who scored 100 percent. That’s never happened before or since. I was fine with it because that was just Mark’s way.”

Compassion, competition

From his mother, Olga, Sanchez inherited compassion. His parents divorced when he was young, but they remained active in his upbringing. Sanchez grew up hearing stories about the need to roll up his sleeves, seek out advice and reciprocate goodwill.

To know Sanchez is to know his family. When the New York Jets selected him with the No. 5 pick in the 2009 NFL draft, he had his draft party at the ESPN Zone in Anaheim so everyone, including his grandmother, Ellen Marmolejo, could celebrate together. At a recent Thanksgiving dinner, Sanchez gathered family members for a feast, which featured the tradition of guests bringing side dishes. No pretense. No entourage.

In the days leading up to the draft, Sanchez met his college professor, Susan Evans, and her mother, Madie, in New York and attended a Broadway play with his girlfriend at the time. (Sanchez loves musicals and can belt out show tunes.) A few years later, when Evans treated her mother to a trip to Seattle for her 80th birthday, Sanchez sent flowers to the hotel room as a surprise.

“My mom got there before me,” Evans said, “and she called and said, ‘You are not going to believe this. It’s the largest bouquet I have ever seen.’ “

Sanchez first met Evans in her course titled Communicating Health Messages and Medical Issues. He never identified himself as a USC football player, only as a student who needed a “Monday and Wednesday class from 10 to noon.”

“Everyone in the room knew who he was but me,” Evans said of Sanchez, who enrolled in an independent study class on leadership to complete his undergraduate degree at USC. “He’s naturally curious, generous and thoughtful. There’s a decency and honesty about him that is remarkable.”

While playing for the Jets, Sanchez experienced breathtaking highs (two AFC championship games and a 4-2 postseason record) and staggering lows (a torn right shoulder labrum during a preseason game and the infamous “butt fumble”). The Eagles offered a chance for him to start over, but not as a starter. He equipped his apartment with a white board to draw and memorize plays. But he was viewed by the Eagles only as insurance when Nick Foles and Sam Bradford were injured.

Sanchez believes he has grown with experience and will fit in just fine with the Broncos, who have a stable coaching staff, a quarterback-friendly head coach in Gary Kubiak and an offense that mirrors the concepts Sanchez was involved with at USC.

On this morning at a Southern California strip mall, Sanchez has gathered a few voices from his inner circle to push him through a grueling workout of chin-ups, lat pulls and boxing drills in a 40-pound vest. His friends and family remind him of who he is, where he came from and where he wants to be.

“It started when I was just a little guy,” Sanchez said. “Whether it was throwing the ball after practice, hitting extra in the batting cage, taking extra groundballs, it was always about working when somebody is sleeping. I love to compete, and I love football. Sunday, man, you win — oh, my God. You win and everything is better. And, man, I hate losing. Food tastes terrible; you are in bad mood. It’s a sickness. It’s disgusting. Everything I have been through has made me appreciate this more and made me ready for this. I just kept hoping the last few years I would get another shot. It’s here. It’s all I can ask for. So let’s go!”

Mark this down

When the defending NFL champion Broncos open voluntary offseason workouts Monday, Mark Sanchez will be at the top of the depth chart at quarterback. NFL reporter Troy E. Renck offers 10 things you might not know about Sanchez:

1. His favorite sport growing up was basketball. He played forward, exhausting his fouls while leading his travel team in rebounding.

2. He played one season of soccer at age 9 for the Raptors. His team didn’t score a goal the entire season.

3. He was a pitcher in baseball, his big hands helping him throw a nasty split-fingered changeup.

4. A rite of passage for the Sanchez brothers was fishing at Crawley Lake in California with their father, Nick Sr.

5. On his first varsity pass as a high school sophomore, he threw a 55-yard touchdown pass that beat El Modena.

6. Played his final two prep seasons at Mission Viejo High School under the tutelage of Bob Johnson, who coached NFL quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Rob Johnson (Bob’s son).

7. Plastered the back-page headline “Broadway Schmo” on his wall at training camp with the New York Jets as motivation.

8. Loves to attend Broadway plays. Has seen “Book of Mormon” and “Wicked” multiple times.

9. Nick, his brother, played quarterback at Yale.

10. Diet still a work in progress because he admittedly struggles to pass up a big steak.