In the era of entitled one-sport athletes or academically-minded students living in the library there is a student-athlete at Tucson Catalina High School who is a throwback to days gone past. Catalina senior Judith Gramajo has played four sports a year since she was a freshman and still maintains a 4.13 GPA.  Oh, she also tried football and has a 20-hour-a-week job and teaches Sunday school. Seriously.

"I was a bit overweight when I was younger and my doctor suggested I should try sports," said Gramajo. "My dad showed me videos of when I played soccer when I was younger and you could see I was the only one constantly running around even if I didn't have the ball."

As it turned out, soccer changed her life and it eventually came to be Gramajo's sport of choice, but she is inquisitive by nature and wanted to see what else there was both in the classroom and on the playing fields.

"I won the championship in the discus as an eight grader and everyone said I was already throwing high school distances," explained Gramajo. "I though that was what I would do in college but I found so much more out there that I wanted to try."

Gramajo played volleyball and basketball and competed in track and field her freshman year at Catalina. That year, coincidently, was the last time she would ever see a "B" on her report card.

"Sports became my stress reliever," said Gramajo. "It helps me so much, it's hard to explain. I put in my practice and then do my homework sometimes until 2 a.m. I also want to eventually be a math teacher and I realized I could do that because I love math and I teach Sunday school to fifth graders."

With maturity beyond her age, Gramajo believes parents never knew how young she was or they never would have let her teach their kids on Sunday mornings at her church but she has been very successful. The only difficulty she has had with the fifth graders are the obvious behavioral issues but that has only helped her decide she wants to teach high school math or be a college professor.

Always learning.

After trying football in the summer before her sophomore year out of curiosity, Gramajo went back to her main sports but added basketball even though soccer and basketball are in the same season.

"I would start out at basketball practice at 3:30 and then go outside to soccer practice at 4:30," explained Gramajo. "On game days we would look to see where I was needed the most and then I would do my school-work."

Grades suffering? Hardly. Gramajo was named the Catalina Scholar Athlete of the Year after her sophomore year.

She played summer football again after her sophomore year but loved volleyball too much to play tackle in the fall. No worries, she added softball to her plate in her junior year.

"The softball coach (Mike Garcia) had an open practice for all athletes and I gave it a try because it was a new thing and I was curious," said Gramajo. "I loved it from the first day and coach Garcia was awesome. I borrowed equipment and I was set.  I played first base."

So, her junior year consisted of volleyball, basketball, soccer, track and softball. Oh, she was also the class president as she had been since her freshman year. She also helped select who would get into the Inaugural Catalina Hall of Fame.

Even more has fallen on her schedule her senior year but Gramajo welcomes everything that comes her way, mainly because she goes looking for it. Now the school's Student Body Vice President, she is going to make a college visit later this month for a possible soccer scholarship out of state.

Even though her parents are encouraging her to expand her boundaries and go away for college as her two older siblings had done, the usually curious Gramajo worries about everything she has at home.

"I have my job, my church, my students and my family here," said Gramajo. "I know I should leave but this is my home."

Gramajo picked up a part-time job working as a courtesy clerk at Fry's, causing her to give up basketball this year but she still played volleyball in the fall, is playing soccer now and will play softball in the spring.

For Gramajo, life is full of new adventures and she discovers new things almost daily.  And she is smart enough to stay away from the boys.

"I don't have the time for that," Gramajo said with a chuckle. "But you will also find me at every party, function, dance or game at our school.     

"Oh, and I'm going to play third base this year," she added.

Of course.