Sebastian Cheeks’ transcript and curriculum vitae were impressive as they began making their rounds through various admissions offices at Carolina in the spring of 2021: Straight-As in advanced prep classes at a well-respected Chicago high school; community service endeavors ranging from volunteering at shelters for the abused to serving holiday meals to military veterans; High Honor Roll and Academic All-American laurels at Evanston Township High.

Not only that, Cheeks stands 6-foot-3, weighs 230 pounds, sprints 40 yards in 4.5 seconds and loves to play football.

So when he signed on the dotted line to play football for the Tar Heels in December 2021, Coach Mack Brown and linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen rejoiced. “He’s big, long, athletic and fast,” Thigpen says.

“He’s the entire package. He’s what the NFL is looking for. He’s highly intelligent and his care factor is through the roof.”

“We’ve been a little undersized at linebacker, and Sebastian helps solve that,” Brown adds. “He’s powerful, he’s quick. He was also a track star. He could have gone anywhere in the country, but he fell in love with Chapel Hill.”

And officials at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School were delighted to welcome Cheeks into the fold.

“I have never been more impressed with a 17-year-old in my life,” says Jackie Fritsch, Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment for Kenan-Flagler Business School. “He looks you in the eye. He’s very charismatic. He’s a very strong student, and academics were going to be a big driver of wherever he decided to go to school.”

Of the 58,000 high school students who applied to Carolina for the incoming class of 2022, Cheeks was one of around 100 students selected for “assured admission” to Kenan-Flagler. Students granted assured admission will fulfill two, first-year seminar type business courses and have access to unique study abroad opportunities through Kenan-Flagler. Students must still complete the business prerequisites, maintain a 3.25 GPA and submit a condensed version of the application after their first year in order to begin the business curriculum starting spring of sophomore year.

“He is going to make this amazing place that much better,” Fritsch says.

Cheeks chose the Tar Heels over more than two dozen Power Five schools that included nearly all the Big Ten schools as well as Notre Dame, Stanford and California. Insiders at Texas at one point thought the Longhorns had the edge.

He entered Carolina in January 2022, played spring football and completed his first semester of college. His opting for the Tar Heels helped give Brown a juggernaut haul on the defensive side of the ball as he joins other highly sought-after players like five-star tackle Travis Shaw and four-star prospects Malaki Hamrick, Beau Atkinson and Tayon Holloway.

And so impressive were his non-athletic achievements that he’s the only incoming football player to have ever been offered “assured admit” to Kenan-Flagler.

“Football is just the gravy, it’s a platform that will serve him and Carolina very well for many years,” Fritsch says. “But remove football from the equation, and Sebastian is still the type of student we want at the Business School. He’s in a very select group.”

The Tar Heels were thick into the pursuit of Salisbury linebacker Jalon Walker in the spring of 2021 when he announced his decision to attend the University of Georgia. Thigpen immediately scoured the country for the top linebackers and found that Cheeks was one of the best not already committed. Thigpen reached out on Twitter and the dominoes fell from there.

“I had a fair amount of choices, highly academic choices like Stanford, like Berkeley,” Cheeks says. “What stood out for Carolina was balance of the academics and football and the relationships I built on campus. The pre-admit to the Business School was important. Hearing of the avenues taken by people who are B-school alums and their success make an impact.”

Sebastian’s father Darryl was an important part of Carolina’s courting of the Cheek family, which includes wife Rebecca and Sebastian’s two older brothers and younger sister.

Darryl wrestled at the University of Illinois and received his business degree there in 1990. Over three decades, he carved a multi-faceted career, working as a CPA with Arthur Anderson, a finance executive with Abbott Labs and branching off into entrepreneurial pursuits that included being a partner in a Chicago barbecue restaurant. In 2006, he opened Black Rhino Financial Group, a consulting firm that worked primarily with small businesses and handled backroom work such as accounting, taxation and finance. Cheeks also was an ordained minister and founded Dayenu Ministries, a service group that addressed the needs of hospitalized children, domestically abused women and children, the homeless, veterans and other groups.

The die was cast that Sebastian would develop an interest in business.

“My dad was a very driven man,” he says. “He was a CPA, owned multiple businesses and was a minister. He always had an entrepreneurial mindset that he could go out and change things. The groundwork he laid through his faith was inspiring to watch.”

“His father ‘got it’ that Kenan-Flagler Business School is the real deal,” Thigpen says. “He’s a high-character and super talented kid. His father was on board, and Sebastian loves and respects his father. It all fits.”

Darryl was diagnosed about eight years ago with a rare autoimmune condition. Just as Sebastian was being recruited and then signed with the Tar Heels in December 2021, Darryl’s condition worsened. Sebastian was in San Antonio in early January for the All-American Bowl and had to leave late in the week to return to Chicago to be with his family. Just as Darryl was spiraling toward his death on Jan. 8, Sebastian was being heralded on NBC Sports for winning the all-star game’s Man of the Year Award, predicated on excellence in community service and athletic distinction.

“Now I have to live the rest of my life through my dad,” Sebastian says. “I’m just a reflection of Darryl Cheeks. Everything I know, I know because of him. He’s put me in position to be my own man. Now it’s up to me to live up to his standards of faith and hard work.”