DELRAY BEACH – Christian Brown embodies greatness in more ways than one.

The Atlantic (Delray Beach) High School graduate, a bona-fide track star this past spring season, will be headed north to Princeton (N.J.) for the next few years as a college student. He is set to compete in football and track at the Ivy League school.

Our New Era Prep Student athlete of the Month for April 2018, who graduated from Atlantic on May 19, is the definition of a true-student athlete. Brown expounds on what that distinctive term means to him.

“Being a student-athlete entails so much more than simply attending both class and sports,” Brown said. “It’s the will to spend endless night hours on a paper or studying for a test and still giving one hundred and ten percent to your coaches the next day. It’s telling yourself to keep going when it swears its reached that wall where it can no longer push forward.”

Brown has more to say about his take on being a student-athlete.

“The term student-athlete appears to be simple in speech, but it is a daunting thing to master,” Brown said. “With the help of my mom, dad, siblings, and numerous coaches along the way, the will to continue has been immense, given the fact that everyday I work to perfect my craft. It is full of pure enjoyment and drive.”

On the student side, Brown has made it his mission to set himself up for success in the future at Princeton. He finished high school with a 3.7 unweighted GPA and a 5.6 weighted GPA, a truly impressive feat in its own right.

“First, Princeton University is the No. 1 university in the country,” Brown said. “It has all of the academic resources any curious young adult would want in this world to not only be successful in life, but thrive in it and be a part of a one-of-a-kind family. Also, the friends I made in the short amount of time I was there on my official visit were some of the most genuine and fruitful of all my visits. Princeton was one of very few schools that was able to accommodate me playing two sports, track and football. This was a factor that pushed Princeton to the top of my list and the reason I will be attending in the fall.”

Brown’s summer will be primarily about his transition from high school to college. He says he will depart for about 10 days after the Fourth of July to train and get acclimated to life at Princeton, but will return home after that until he leaves for the long haul in mid-August for fall football camp.

Not only that, but Brown will be preparing for his college freshman year on the academic front.

“I intend to follow a Pre-med track at Princeton, though it is a liberal arts university,” Brown said. “I will have the ability to complete all of my medical related prerequisite classes through a multitude of majors, which presents me with this ongoing decision of what major to study. That will be a decision for a later date.”

With all that said, Brown made sure to realize a high school dream prior to his transition from Atlantic Community High School to Princeton University.

The Palm Beach Post Track Athlete of the Year won four events at the Region 3-4A Championship Track Meet on April 25, which included the 110-meter hurdles (14.19 seconds), the 300-meter hurdles (37.87), the long jump, and the boys 4×100 (43.04). He helped Atlantic’s boys team win the regional meet at Park Vista with 64 points.

Brown went on to claim his status as a state champion in the Class 4A track and field championships at North Florida University (Jacksonville, Fla.) earlier this month (May 5).

“It is a dream come true to finally secure the title I have worked four years for,” Brown said. “I have gone through so many disqualifying false starts, disappointing races, and hard days on the practice track. Being able to say I am a state champion is surreal and gratifying. I did it only with God, and I did it for my family, friends, my late friend Marc-Allen Derac, my school, and the county that raised me, Palm Beach.”

When Brown heads off to Princeton later this summer, he will be taking a few things with him. They come in the form of morals and values that have led to his current level of success.

“It’s very important for me to be quick to listen and slow to speak,” Brown said. “I need to make sure I remain humble, aware, and always able to learn as I learn the ropes of adult life. At the same time, I’ll make sure I don’t forget where I came from.”