Hunter Greene can throw a baseball 98 miles per hour. He can launch home runs out of major league ballparks—not just out of the field of play, but out of the stadiums themselves.

To this point, there seems to be no limit to what Greene can do on the baseball field. As a rising high school senior, Greene makes everything he does appear effortless.

But Hunter Greene’s life has been far from effortless. In fact, Greene has become one of the nation’s best prospects through a series of trials early on in his life. Greene hasn’t succeeded in spite of his challenges; he’s succeeded because of them. As the final summer of his childhood winds down, Greene is prepared for anything. At 17 years old, he’s a man. A man with an answer to every question. A man with a remedy for every ailment. A man with a solution to every problem.

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Before becoming one of the best high school prospects the draft has seen in recent years, Greene had to learn how to deal with failure and rejection. He had to learn how to manage unfortunate situations that were beyond his control.

On Dec. 9, 2010, the Greene family watched as the Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames 2-1. It was an exciting game, but it isn’t the game that occupies Hunter Greene’s most vivid memories from that night.

As the Greenes entered the Staples Center, Hunter noticed bruises on the arm of Libriti Greene, his younger sister, who was 5 years old at the time. Hunter alerted his parents, Russell and Senta, and the Greenes decided to have Libriti examined by a doctor the next day, just to be safe and make sure everything was OK.

The plan was to spend the following evening, a Friday, out on the Greenes’ boat on a harbor cruise. But when the Greenes received the results of Libriti’s examination, Russell heard a word that didn’t register with him at first: leukemia. He had to hear the word “cancer” before it hit him. As Libriti and Senta rode in an ambulance to the hospital, Russell drove to pick up Hunter from school. When Russell arrived, Hunter knew something wasn’t right.

“We got to the car, and then he broke down crying,” Hunter said. “And I let him settle down and then I asked him what was wrong and he said that my sister had cancer.

“I just sat in the passenger’s seat banging on the car door, screaming and crying,” Greene recalled as tears filled his eyes.

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Even today, the memory of that day stirs up powerful emotions.

The 32-foot boat sat in front of the Greenes’ house for weeks, emblematic of how quickly life can change. For months, Libriti would require intensive treatment. She ended up spending more than a year in the hospital, with at least one parent by her side constantly, as Russell and Senta took turns getting Hunter to and from school and baseball practices and games. Complicating matters further, Senta was pregnant with the couple’s third child, Ethan Greene, who would arrive in March of 2011.

Hunter knew he had to be strong. The whole family had to be strong.

“The mindset was not that Libriti was battling, fighting cancer,” Senta Greene said. “We chose that Libriti was going to live with cancer. And just changing that vocabulary and understanding that as long as we treated it as ‘this as a fight,’ the intensity and the negativity that was around that, that’s what (we) circled.”

“Russell used to say ‘the cancer is living with her.’ And that may seem small, but that became a mantra for us in order to get through what we were going through.”

The Greenes instilled that kind of attitude in Hunter at an early age. While no challenge compares to that of a loved one living with cancer, Hunter did have a history of taking negative situations and framing them as opportunities.

Greene began playing Pony baseball when he was 7 years old, and that spring Russell and Senta made the decision to bring him to Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy, where he’d receive instruction from older players in the program and have the opportunity to learn about the game from some of baseball’s most encyclopedic minds. Aaron Hicks and Anthony Gose, both of whom would go on to be high draft picks in 2008, were among those who coached Hunter at the Urban Youth Academy.

It was also at that age that Hunter began working with Alan Jaeger, a pitching coach widely considered a pioneer of arm health and velocity development. Hunter began training with Jaeger’s arm bands; Russell Greene said working with Jaeger was “critical” for Hunter’s development.

“He’s just been someone from a very, very young age (who has stayed) with the principles of what we believe in,” Jaeger said of Greene. “He’s so unique in what he did at such a young age and now he’s a very unique byproduct of that.”

When Hunter finally did get his chance to pitch for his Pony team, it was in the playoffs, in a losing situation. Greene held his opponent in check that day, helping to extend the game for his team. The game went so long that it had to be moved to another field in deference to a previously scheduled game on the original field. Despite the move, and roughly a half hour off the mound, Hunter continued to shut down his opponent, earning a victory in his first chance.

“He turned that game around,” Senta recalls. “That’s when I saw, for my own eyes, his character and who he was as a baseball player . . . For me that was turning point.”

Having established that character at an early age, Hunter was more prepared to handle the adversity that Libriti and the Greenes faced. While his sister was taking 16 medications per day, Hunter was there by her side, doing what he could to help his baby sister endure treatment.

“Hunter played it off really well,” Libriti said of her brother’s attitude during her hospitalization. “At first I thought he didn’t even know because he would play with me a lot. And he would act like nothing was wrong and eat mac and cheese with me and play the Wii with me and take (shots) with me.”

During that time, Hunter was trying to get into Harvard-Westlake, an upscale prep school that churned out a pair of first-round picks in 2012, Max Fried and Lucas Giolito. Greene applied for the middle school program, trying to get in as a seventh grader in 2011. To achieve his goal, Hunter dedicated the majority of his time and energy to building a resume that could earn him admission, boosting his grades and test scores, being actively involved in the community and playing the violin. He gave up nights and weekends, abandoning an ordinary social life in pursuit of something more.

Then, in the midst of Libriti’s treatment, Hunter was rejected by Harvard-Westlake.

“I thought there was no future for me if I didn’t get into Harvard-Westlake,” Greene said.

But after his rejection, there would be plenty of future. A future brighter than he could have imagined. Everything would be OK. Everything would be more than OK.

Spurned by Harvard-Westlake, Hunter enrolled at Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School (SCVi) in Stevenson Ranch, Calif., where he spent two years, this time trying to get into Notre Dame High (Sherman Oaks, Calif.), a school where many of his friends had gone and a baseball program befitting Greene’s talent. Notre Dame has shepherded many high-profile baseball people through, including Hall of Fame executive Pat Gillick, Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton and 16-year major leaguer Tim Foli, who was the first overall pick in 1968.

At SCVi, Greene continued to excel in baseball, playing for the Pacific Baseball Academy and the Van Nuys Braves. Meanwhile, Hunter was juggling the rigors of his academics and daily visits with Libriti.

“We’ve tried to keep as much normalcy as possible,” Russell Greene said. “I don’t think Hunter’s ever missed a game or a tournament because of Libriti’s situation.”

Through that trying time, Hunter had to grow up quickly. Despite the Greenes’ best efforts, Hunter was not going to be a typical middle school student. During his middle school years at SCVi, Hunter had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador, where he not only played baseball but helped run clinics in small villages, exposing young people to the game. Hunter continued playing with his two club teams, working on his violin and, for good measure, adding a foreign language—Korean—to his resume.

While Hunter pursued Notre Dame and baseball, Libriti’s treatment went on, and Ethan was born. Libriti’s journey through cancer has been anything but easy, but she’s remained strong and maintained her youthful optimism. She was homeschooled as a first grader, and after months of fatigue from chemotherapy, Libriti started to recover. She’s been in remission for two years.

“I still knew that I had to stay strong, because it doesn’t mean that she’s completely cured,” Hunter said. When he got the news of her remission, Hunter hugged his sister and told her that he was proud of her.

As she’s watched Hunter blossom into a top prospect, Libriti has found success of her own. She plays softball and makes bracelets, inching through remission each day on her way to adulthood. Hunter wears those bracelets faithfully, drawing inspiration from his younger sister whenever he sees her youthful smile in the crowd.

Following his rejection from Harvard-Westlake’s middle school program, Hunter set his sights on Notre Dame. After two years at SCVi, Hunter accomplished his goal. Hunter got into Notre Dame, and won the starting shortstop job as a freshman in 2014.

But Hunter understands that the hard work never stops. With Libriti in remission, he understands that he needs to remain positive and continue pushing, acknowledging the bad things that can happen and doing what he can to make the best of them.

Hunter has just started his senior year. He’s been a three-year star at Notre Dame, starred in showcases, played all-star games in big league ballparks, and has a chance to follow in Foli’s footsteps and become the top pick in next June’s draft. He’s as good a prospect as the draft has seen in recent years, and there’s a clear process that has led him to this point.

“At this point, going out and playing is like the easiest part of the day,” Hunter Greene said. “That’s just going out to a baseball field and seeing my friends. It’s a sport that I love, but that’s the easy part of the day.”

Routine and process are the keys to the door of major league success, and Greene understands how important they are. He knows how he has to condition his body, how to eat, how to make sure he’s prepared for any situation he might encounter in his baseball future.

When Libriti had cancer and he was trying to get into Notre Dame, there wasn’t any room for him to break routine; Hunter constantly had to be in one place or another, for baseball or for other pursuits. Chaos forced structure into his life, and now his schedule is regimented down to the minute.

During the school year, Greene wakes up a 5:45 a.m. to the scent of omelets. His parents have a healthy competition going as they nourish their children with breakfast each morning, with Russell taking pride in his omelets and Senta whipping up French toast. Hunter usually eats a can of corn beef hash, with fresh hash browns and a pair of eggs over easy, washing it down with a protein shake.

Notre Dame catcher and close friend Justin Rorick picks Hunter up each morning. They’re usually on the freeway by 6:30 a.m., arriving at school in time for the beginning of the school day at 7:45. During the season, Greene has practice from about 1:30 until 4 p.m. Then he heads to The Factory, a training facility in Sherman Oaks, and he works out until around 6:30. He heads home, has dinner and hits the books, sneaking in a little face time with Libriti, Ethan and his parents when he can. He tries to get to sleep by midnight.

In the summer, Greene long tossed every other day. He threw 60-pitch bullpens two days before he was scheduled to pitch so that he’d be able to sustain his velocity throughout his outings.

In batting practice, Greene aims to take a “professional batting practice.” He’s not necessarily concerned with showing his raw power at this stage. When he’s in a home run derby—he participated in several this summer, winning the derby at the PG All-American Classic in San Diego—Greene will “elevate and celebrate.” But right now, he tries to pepper the opposite field in the early rounds, before working up the middle and eventually turning on pitches in later rounds.

Greene knows scouts who get to know him well will understand what he’s trying to accomplish. They’ll understand Hunter Greene is more than the dozen or so swings he takes in batting practice, or the dozen or so at-bats he might get in a showcase. He has the exceptional raw power to pull the ball into the streets in Wrigleyville in Chicago for the Under Armour All-America Game, but last spring, when Greene saw a healthy diet of pitches down and away, he hit numerous doubles to right field, shellacking balls off the wall.

Greene knows he’s going to be challenged with pitches away this spring, and so he’s tried to figure out a way to improve his opposite-field power. Greene began swinging a 33 ½ inch, drop-1 bat this summer, as opposed to a more standard, significantly lighter, 33-inch, drop-3 bat. He’s trying to get stronger; in 2017, Greene wants those opposite-field doubles to be opposite-field home runs.

“I think every kid wants to go 4-for-4 and hit a home run or a double; we can get caught up in that a lot,” Greene said. “That’s a thing we’re always talking about in the dugout and saying ‘Let’s see if I can go 3-for-4 and hit a double and impress all these scouts.’”

“But at the end of the day I don’t think it’s about that. I think it’s about the long term and being able to get better and get stronger, faster. So I think trusting the process is a huge key to getting better and being able to play at the best of your ability.”

It’s not hard to find evaluators who believe Greene could be both a pitcher and a shortstop at the major league level. Other evaluators are so enamored with Greene’s power and graceful infield actions that they don’t want to see him leave that behind. Still others think he’s simply too advanced as a pitcher and could reach the majors much more quickly on the mound.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” one American League scouting director said of Greene’s two-way potential. This particular official said he felt comfortable discussing Greene because he didn’t think the SoCal phenom would be available when his team picks. Even with the 2017 draft order still undefined, this director believes his team won’t lose enough games to get Greene.

One front office executive chimed in, comparing and contrasting Greene to Shohei Otani, a 22-year-old who hits and pitches with power for Nippon Ham of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

“(Greene’s) better than Otani was at the same age, no question,” the official said. “He has all the tools and he has track record, too. We all saw him play for Team USA when he was 15 and we all saw him this summer.”

Others are more lukewarm on Greene. Some evaluators think the gap between Hunter Greene the pitcher and Hunter Greene the shortstop is so large that he ought to hop on the mound and focus exclusively on his pitching, where he could move through the minor leagues more quickly. As good as he is on the mound at times, Greene’s still a high schooler. Expectations should be high, but there is still plenty of room for growth.

“Whatever the team wants me to do, that’s what I’m going to do,” Greene said, acknowledging that he could still end up at UCLA, where he verbally committed as a middle school student.

Greene wants to win. He wants to inspire another generation of young players, like Jackie Robinson and Derek Jeter inspire him.

Whether it’s on the mound or in the field, Greene wants to be someone that young people can look up to and know that, even if life presents challenges, those can be opportunities. They were for Hunter Greene, who has come through those challenges knowing everything is going to be OK. In fact, things are going to be more than OK.

“It’s all about the next generation,” Greene said. “I’d love to hear, ‘Hey I’m playing this game because of Hunter Greene.’ That’s awesome to hear.”