Carson High’s Peter Garrett named Gatorade Player of the Year in boys soccer

Peter Garrett was the glue that held the Carson High boys soccer defense together, and last week he reaped the benefits of his success and the team’s state championship by being named the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state.

Garrett was nominated for the award by coach Mike Alvarez, and he found out about it while he was in Las Vegas playing club soccer.

“My brother called me in Las Vegas where I was playing in the Mayor’s Cup,” Garrett said Monday afternoon. “He said something had come in the mail from Gatorade. When I found out I was super excited. I feel like I deserved it in a way because of all the hard work I put in.”

“It’s really neat,” Alvarez said. “I put down some notes on his play. I hope it made a difference. He was amazing this year. He always tried to keep other players in the game mentally. He communicated well, and he was the captain of the defense out there.”

Maybe the most amazing thing is usually an honor like this goes to a high-scoring forward or midfielder. Garrett scored just five goals this year, but his effort on defense was a key reason why Carson was able to win a regional and state championship by beating Wooster twice in six days.

“It’s hard to compete (with forwards or midfielders),” Alvarez said “They have the stats. It was nice to see a defensive guy get honored.”

Carson enjoyed a storybook season, winning its first regional title since 2012 and its first state title since 1998.

The good news is despite losing six players to graduation, the Senators figure to be just as good next season.

“The only starter we lost was Brian Llamas,” Garrett said. “We have a lot of confidence going into next season. We had confidence we could make it to state (this past year).

“Once we won that first game on Friday, we figured let’s go out and win it all.”

And, despite being outshot by Wooster, Carson used two penalty kicks by Abel Sanchez, to win the title, 2-1.