Yousef Mabrouk is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Seton Catholic Prep for AZPreps365.com.

Julian Garcia is one of those guys you meet once a decade.

He transferred from Brophy College Preparatory to Seton Catholic Preparatory in hopes of finding more opportunities for his education as well as playing the sports he loves. Safe to say he found both.

"As a career long educator, I can say that Julian is one of the finest young men I have had the opportunity to teach,” Coach Pete Wahlheim said. “His maturity and work ethic is an amazing example to all around him. He has been a true bright spot on our campus and our community".

Julian’s academic career has been nothing short of amazing. He currently has a 4.7 GPA and has parlayed that into a full academic scholarship to the University of Alabama. Not only does he excel in the classroom, but he also makes those around him better.

Julian is president of the National Honors Society and the Math Honor Society. He is also a National Merit scholar as well which helped him get his full ride to the Crimson Tide.

It wasn’t just the classroom where Garcia thrived. He played multiple sports throughout high school, such as track and field and basketball.

“What I can say about Julian is he’s one of the hardest working people I know. I consider myself a very hard-working person and Julian is about in my level of that which is awesome because he would always push me harder in practices,” basketball teammate Giovanni Barone said. “He’s a great teammate, always looking out for his brothers and will put your needs before him. He’s a great kid and he’ll succeed in any task you give him. All I have to say about him is good things.”

Julian's best sport was basketball. He played two positions but not the ones you would think. He played point guard and center for Seton Catholic. On the offensive side of the ball, he would score and assist and on the defensive side of the ball he would pick up their biggest player.

“He was our senior leader. He made the second team in our region this year. For us having him for two years. Coaching him throughout that whole time. For him to transfer was awesome,” Kornya said. "He ended up becoming a great leader for us, someone that I can honestly say is family for life. Great kid. He has a full ride to Alabama on an academic scholarship, man, so it's. So awesome.”

Garcia explained how he was able to manage all the stress at once. From the classroom to the hardwood and extracurricular activities.

“It helps having a mom and dad that are both really hard working and don’t really accept mediocrity,” Garcia said. “My parents would never get mad at me if I tried something and didn’t do good in it if I tried. Just having good parents instill those values in me really helped.”