Readers name Hough’s Capy Suarez as Charlotte-area soccer player of the year
Charlotte Catholic boys’ soccer coach Gary Hoilett’s team played Hough in the third round of the N.C. 4A playoffs last month.
As he was trying to get his Cougars ready, people he talked to about Hough kept repeating the same name: Huskies senior Capy Suarez.
“In all my scouting reports, he was the name that kept coming up,” said Hoilett, who was inducted into the N.C. Soccer Hall of Fame this year.
Catholic won the game, 4-2, but Suarez scored a tough goal and helped the Huskies put a scare into a team that would ultimately play in the Western Regional championship game.
Suarez, a senior forward, ended the year with 24 goals and 22 assists. Last week, Charlotte Observer readers voted him as regional boys’ soccer player of the year.
The Observer will make its own selection when the annual All-Observer boys’ soccer team runs later this month.
“He’s a really good player,” Hoilett said of Suarez. “I thought when we played them in the playoffs, he was their top player. Full stop. He’s a skillful, good scorer with a high IQ. I mean he finished a really good goal against us. He’s really good.”
Suarez ended his Hough career with 57 goals and 41 assists in three seasons. In seven playoff games, he had seven goals and four assists. He was a three-time all-conference and a three-time all-region pick.
“He got hurt early in the non-conference schedule. He separated his shoulder,” said Hough coach Mike Kutcher. “He had to miss three or four of our bigger non-conference games and the first two conference games, but as soon as he came back he was laser focused and the team rallied around him, with how much fun he was having being back. We feed off Capy.”
Kutcher said Suarez has accepted an invitation to try for a permanent spot on a professional team in England next year.
“He’s a special kid,” Kutcher said. “He’s a big game kind of guy. He shows up in those big games and does whatever it takes and he leads by example. He’s got a knack for being around the ball and being around the box and knowing where to be when the ball is bouncing around. He finds those loose balls and it gives him opportunities to score goals that others can’t.”
