Results are in. Voters tab St. Brendan soccer player as Miami-Dade winter athlete of the year
The St. Brendan boys’ soccer team made history this season by winning the school’s first state title in the sport.
Alex Rodriguez was a focal point in the team’s success. He was already named the Miami Herald’s 4A-2A Miami-Dade Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year for his efforts.
And now, he has another accolade coming his way.
Miami Herald readers voted the Rodriguez as the Miami Herald’s Winter Athlete of the Year for Miami-Dade County.
Just how dominant was Rodriguez this season? The junior scored 28 goals this season, including five hat tricks. He also scored the only goal in the Class 4A championship game to lift St. Brendan past Orlando Bishop Moore for the state title.
“It was probably the best one I scored all season,” Rodriguez said, “and the biggest one I scored all season.”
His heroics all season were paramount for the Sabres, who before this season had never won a regional playoff game in boys soccer let alone march their way to a state championship. It was also St. Brendan’s first state title in any boys sport in more than three decades.
About 16,500 people voted in the poll, which included all 10 players from Miami-Dade County who were named player of the year in either basketball, soccer or wrestling by the Miami Herald this year. Rodriguez received 44 percent of the vote, with Lourdes girls’ soccer’s Katerina Puig (27 percent), Gulliver Prep girls’ soccer’s Catalina Garcia (18 percent), Columbus boys’ basketball’s Cameron Boozer (6 percent) and Doral Academy boys’ soccer’s Carlos Zambrano (5 percent) rounding out the top five.
The Miami Herald will select its overall Athletes of the Year and reveal those winners in June. The results from this poll will not have a bearing on those selections.
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
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