Laurel Gonzalez of Torrey Pines is the first in San Diego to be named CIF Player of the Year in three sports

A quarterback, a football standout, a lacrosse champion: Laurel Gonzalez is a legitimate triple threat, racking up athletic and academic accolades.

The Torrey Pines High School senior was named CIF Player of the Year last spring in lacrosse, Flag Football Player of the Year in the fall and Football Player of the Year in the winter after helping her team win the CIF championship. open division. She is the first San Diego athlete to win Player of the Year in three different sports.

Currently playing in the lacrosse season playoffs to defend last year’s championship, Laurel was also recently named Torrey Pines Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

“Laurel is unquestionably an exceptional athlete and it has been a pleasure to witness her growth into an exceptional leader,” said Torrey Pines football coach Martyn Hansford. “Laurel sums up all the values ​​and attributes that any coach wants in a player. His calm demeanor and quiet confidence are contagious and have been instrumental in our success; especially in moments of adversity when the best athletes find a way to lead their team to victory. What always caught my attention during the time I coached Laurel was the joy she finds playing sports and being part of a team.”

This fall, Laurel will play Big Ten lacrosse at Johns Hopkins.

Growing up in a family of “sports fanatics,” from a young age Laurel signed up for almost every sport or activity possible. She took to sports easily and enjoyed playing and watching her older sisters play from the sidelines, often playing football with her father.

She played soccer for the Del Mar/Carmel Valley Sharks before switching to the San Diego Force, playing for the 2005 and 2004 teams. She also began playing recreational lacrosse when she was in first grade.

“The whole time I was so interested in football, it was my dream,” Laurel said. “I wanted to be on the U.S. Women’s National Team and that’s what I thought I was going to do in college until ninth grade and I realized ‘I’m good at lacrosse’ and then lacrosse became my main sport.”

From recreational lacrosse, Laurel began playing club lacrosse in sixth grade. She played for the West Coast Stars, which became Coast Lacrosse, and was later recruited to play for the Mad Dog West Elite.

With Mad Dog, Laurel had the opportunity to hone her lacrosse skills by traveling and playing a lot on the East Coast at tournaments and summer camps: “It’s a totally different game there,” she said.

As a midfielder, Laurel said his strengths are his playing IQ and his vision. “I make a lot of movements off the ball, I’m not necessarily a ball handler. I move further away from the ball and can be more experienced,” she said.

On May 3, the experienced midfielder scored her 200th goal of her high school lacrosse career.

Although Laurel stopped playing football her sophomore year to shift her focus to lacrosse, she continued playing football for the Falcons. As a “ball-dominant” striker, she was one of the team’s top scorers.

One of the biggest moments of her high school career was winning the Division 1 championship in 2022 – she played JV and was promoted mid-season to varsity. “I even scored a few goals in the championship game,” Laurel offered.

Let the record show that Laurel actually scored a hat trick in the surprising victory.

As busy as Laurel is with sports, she had time to participate in a very fun inaugural women’s soccer season this fall. She had previous soccer experience playing Friday Night Lights when she was a young member of the Carmel Valley League’s first girls team: “It was so cool to hang out with my dad as my coach and play against the boys from my school and so much more. I often beat them,” she recalls.

Laurel was the starting quarterback for the Falcons, who were undefeated that season and made it to the championship game, where they unfortunately lost for the first time. “It was still a good race,” Laurel said. “I’ve always loved football…the opportunity to actually play in high school was great.”

When it came to playing at the next level, Laurel was down to three great, incredible choices between Harvard, Cornell and Johns Hopkins.

Playing for the Blue Jays ultimately won out, as Johns Hopkins not only had strong academics to set it up for success, but also great energy on the lacrosse side. When visiting the school she felt very welcomed and impressed by the girls on the team.

It will be very competitive in the Big Ten, but she is very excited.

Although lacrosse was the main focus, Laurel said that continuing to play a variety of sports, rather than just specializing, helped prepare her in every way as an athlete. She credits her strong lacrosse stick skills to the hand-eye coordination she gained from playing sports like basketball.

“It helps develop you and make you more well-rounded,” she said. “It’s something every person should try to do.”

Several of her teammates are also multi-sport threats, like her Torrey Pines lacrosse teammate Camille Samarasinghe, who played with Laurel on that girls’ football team when they were younger.

When asked what one of her best memories is playing in a Torrey Pines jersey, it’s not an easy answer for Laurel.

“I’m happy and sad to say that this is such a difficult question,” Laurel said. “Definitely my favorite memory is last season’s lacrosse championship. Personally, I had a great game, I love lacrosse and I have some of my best friends on that team and it was our first win in a while. Winning this was super special.”

Torrey Pines is the top seed in the lacrosse playoffs and Laurel hopes they can meet rival Coronado in the finals, that is, if they get there – she is careful not to take anything for granted.

She has high hopes for just one more championship to cap off her incredibly successful high school career: “That would top everything.”