Salpointe Catholic High School junior forward Leo Gutierrez is so good, they’re trying to send him away.
Already a scoring record holder for the Salpointe boys soccer program, the coaching staff is looking to get him into a Major League Soccer academy.
“I think we owe that to Leo, for all he has done so far,” Salpointe head coach Wolfgang Weber said. “If it works out for him, we won’t have him as a senior.”
The most recent Tucsonan to reach the MLS, defender Tommy Silva, left University High to go to the Real Salt Lake academies. The former FC Tucson first-team player and UCLA Bruin signed with RSL in January.
“Whatever is the plan is what I’m going to do,” Gutierrez said. “So I’m not going to force it to happen, but there’s opportunities there and everything goes in favor or whatever, whatever’s right for me will happen. So I’m not going to force anything but that would be great.”
Weber said he is going to reach out to contacts he has with the Seattle Sounders, the New York clubs and Real Salt Lake. Seattle Technical Director Henry Brauner is from Tucson and coached for FC Tucson’s first team, MLS Senior Manager Luis Robles played for the New York Red Bulls and has contacts with NYFC (Weber coached the Sierra Vista native at Tucson Soccer Academy) and RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni played for Weber for the Tucson Amigos.
Salpointe's Leo Gutierrez (9) tries to shoulder his way into the box against Rincon/University's Chris Varela Fonseca (5) in the first half of a bracket game at the Brandon Bean Soccer Tournament at Kino Stadium in Tucson on Nov. 29, 2023.
At the high school level, Gutierrez has led Salpointe to the high school soccer semifinals even though the Lancers lost nine seniors from last year’s state championship-winning team; that includes the team’s whole back line and four midfielders.
No. 4 Salpointe faces No. 1 Flagstaff on Tuesday afternoon in the Class 4A state semifinals.
Gutierrez has 108 goals in his high school career. The only other Lancers to get to 100 goals are Vince Bianchi in the ’80s, Scott Leber in the ’90s and Fernando Gauna in the ’00s
“So Leo is getting into uncharted territory, if you will,” Weber said. “So I cannot say enough good things about him. There are still things he has to learn about managing himself and his emotions, that sort of thing; and he’s on a good way of doing that.
“But when you just look at the naked numbers, over a hundred goals in his career, that doesn’t happen very often.”
He scored 29 goals as a freshman, becoming the first rookie in Weber’s 42 years at Salpointe to do that. Then he scored 37 last year and has 42 this season, an average of 1.9 goals a game.
He had a brace (the first two goals) in Salpointe’s 7-0 win over Phoenix Thunderbird in the quarterfinals on Saturday despite getting pulled after the game got out of hand.
“Obviously, I’ve been playing pretty good but I’d like to thank my teammates because if it weren’t for them — for the passes they give me every time or when I assist, if it weren’t the goals they score — none of this would be possible,” Gutierrez said. “So although I think I’ve been doing good, I’d like to give a lot of the credit to my teammates and my coaches as well, who train me every day to be a better striker, a better teammate and a better leader.”
Gutierrez has nine assists, putting him at 88 points, fourth-best in the state (all conferences). He is first in goals in the state.
Gutierrez won 4A Kino Region Player of the Year and Region Offensive Player of the Year.
“Without Leo, who knows where we would be because he is the guy we can get the ball to,” Weber said. “He’s got that ability to take on defenders and finish.”
Salpointe's Leo Gutierrez nods the ball down in the Rincon box, setting himself up to score the third Lancer goal of the first half of a Jan. 13, 2023 matchup lat Salpointe Catholic High School.
If he stays in Tucson, Weber said Gutierrez has good coaches at his club team, FC Tucson Youth, in Dave Cosgrove and Luis Gonzalez. Cosgrove coaches the Pima College men and coached FC Tucson’s pro team and Gonzalez is a Pima and Salpointe assistant.
“He can get all the training here from Dave Cosgrove and from Gonzo playing on the teams here in Tucson,” Weber said.
Gutierrez’s FCTY 06 ECNL (Elite Clubs National League) teammate last year, Mauro Tovar, signed a professional contract with Escorpiones Zacatepec in Mexico. Tovar would have been a senior at Walden Grove this year.
Gutierrez earned an invite to an ECNL exclusive camp for the top 90 players in the country.
Weber, who co-founded FCTY, coached Gutierrez last year on the club side where FCTY lost a spot in the ECNL Under 16 final eight after a last-minute own goal. Gutierrez, who said the first half of the club season is going well, had a hat trick at the Nationals.
“So we’re gonna keep working hard to hopefully make Nationals again,” Gutierrez said.
Thanks to a pair of goals by Nicolas Valenzuela and one apiece from Marco Torres and Leo Gutierrez, the Salpointe Catholic boys soccer team won its 10th Arizona high school state championship Feb. 24, 2023, defeating Scottsdale Saguaro, 4-1, at Glendale High School to secure the Class 4A crown. Video by James Kelley, Special to the Arizona Daily Star
A slow-motion capture of Salpointe Catholic's first goal in the Lancers' eventual 4-1 win in the Arizona class 4A state championship on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Leo Gutierrez assisted Nicolas Valenzuela for the first goal of the night in the 67th minute. Video by James Kelley, Special to the Arizona Daily Star
Salpointe Catholic defeated Chandler Arizona College Prep, 4-0, on Feb. 21, 2023 in the Arizona Class 4A state boys soccer semifinals, held at Mountain View High School in Marana. The win propels the No. 1 Lancers to the state championship match against No. 2 Scottsdale Saguaro. Video by James Kelley/Special to the Arizona Daily Star
