Soccer runs in his blood
Gabriel Claudio led Cibola to 6A quarterfinals, 6-1-1 record against local opponents
Before his senior year, Gabriel Claudio thought he could win Player of the Year in football and soccer.
He checked off football in the fall, when he had school record-setting numbers as a wide receiver. This winter, Claudio totaled 23 goals and 14 assists, while leading the Raiders to the quarterfinals in the 6A State Tournament.
Claudio is the 2016-17 Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club Boys Soccer Player of the Year. It’s an achievement he’s glad to have checked off, but his ambition shows that he is still not satisfied.
“To be the best in the city, it’s a good goal,” Claudio said. “Obviously, (my goal) is to be the best in the state. But best in the city is decent.”
While his talent in football was showcased in the fall as a wide receiver and an all-region cornerback, soccer has been Claudio’s main sport.
He started playing when he was for 3 or 4 years old, he said, but it took him a handful of years to develop into a better player.
The tie to soccer comes from his father and his family. Bryan Claudio, Gabriel’s dad, first came to Yuma because of soccer; he played at Arizona Western.
“Ever since he was little when I played, he’s always been with me at the soccer fields,” Bryan said. “He’s always had a ball around him.”
“It’s kind of a family thing,” Gabriel said. “It ran in the blood. I just hopped in, and I’m here now.”
Not only are the fatherand-son pair players, they’re also fans. Gabriel grew up watching Brazil’s Ronaldinho, following Chelsea and Barcelona. Both enjoy watching the U.S. Men’s National Team play.
“Soccer breathes a heavy part of our lives,” Bryan said. “Just watching it, playing it, being around it, it’s something special to us. It’s something we talk about. … It’s something I grew up with, and I’m glad I could pass it on to him.”
Gabriel scored six goals for the Raiders as a sophomore, but it was his junior year when he started to ascend among the ranks of his team and the area. That was also the first year Bryan took over as the varsity soccer coach.
In the 2015-16 season, Gabriel had 18 goals and 10 assists on a Cibola team that reached the Division II