CHICAGO (June 8, 2020) — In its 35th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company today announced Francesco Montanile of Brophy College Prep as its 2019-20 Gatorade Arizona Boys Soccer Player of the Year. Montanile is the seventh Gatorade Arizona Boys Soccer Player of the Year to be chosen from Brophy College Prep.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Montanile as Arizona’s best high school boys soccer player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Montanile joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Alexi Lalas (1987-88, Cranbrook High School, Mich.), Steve Cherundolo (1996-97, Mt. Carmel High School, Calif.), Abby Wambach (1997-98, Our Lady of Mercy School of Young Women, N.Y.), Heather O’Reilly (2001-02, 2002-03, East Brunswick High School, N.J.), Matt Besler (2004-05, Blue Valley West High School, Kans.), Jack Harrison (2013-14, Berkshire High School, Mass.) and Mallory Pugh (2014-15, Mountain Vista High School, Colo.).

The 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior midfielder led the Broncos to a 22-2-1 record and the Conference 6A state championship this past season. Montanile totaled 15 goals and 33 assists, including both assists in Brophy Prep’s 2-1 win over Chaparral High in the state final. A two-time Arizona Player of the Year as named by the Arizona Republic, Montanile was named the 2020 Conference 6A Player of the Year. He concluded his prep soccer career with 42 goals and 69 assists.

Montanile works at his family’s pizzeria. He has volunteered locally with Feed My Starving Children, and he has donated his time as a youth soccer coach. “Case can be described in one word, ‘Beast,’” said Sasha Hunter, head coach of Chandler High. “He is dominant with his dribbling techniques and his anticipation of where the ball will go next. His ability to make defenders misread what his next step [will be] is beyond high-school-age understanding.”

One of 16 Distinguished Students at Brophy Prep, Montanile has maintained a weighted 3.95 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer on scholarship at the University of California, Irvine.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.

The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport. Montanile joins recent Gatorade Arizona Boys Soccer Players of the Year Deric Hall (2018-19, Brophy College Prep), Carter Clemmensen (2017-18, Brophy College Prep), Danny Baca (2016-17, Gilbert High School), Josh Drack (2015-16, Hamilton High School), Musa Morris (2014-15, Sandra Day O'Connor High School), and Adam Mosharrafa (2013-14, Brophy College Prep) among the state’s list of former award winners.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit www.Gatorade.com/POY, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GatoradePOY or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Gatorade.