One year ago, McAllen High’s Briana Claudio heard one of the worst sounds known to athletes. It was a sound that has become all too familiar in the sports world.
Pop.
“I knew what that meant,” she said. “Oh no, I did it again.”
It was the first round of the playoffs against Edcouch-Elsa with about 10 minutes remaining and Claudio had just torn her left ACL. Her season was over.
In her mind, after tearing her right ACL following her freshman season and missing her sophomore year, that was it. It meant the season was over and goodbye to soccer, forever.
“I said I was done. I wasn’t going to play again,” she said.
But Claudio’s mother told her, “You’re just saying that now. You’re going to come back stronger than ever. You’ve been raised on a soccer field.”
Mom, as always, was right again.
She’ll be back on the field at 7 p.m. Friday as the Bulldogs host the same Yellow Jackets for the Class 5A bi-district round at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Claudio, who head coach Patrick Arney calls a “huge sparkplug” on the team, was the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer with 10 goals during District 31-5A play. She missed a little more than two games with a toe injury in the district season opener against McAllen Rowe but has been back ever since.
“Bri brings so much to this team,” said Arney, who coached Claudio’s mother, Claudia, during his second year at the McHi helm. “I’ve known that girl all her life. She’s smart, aggressive and just gets after it. She’s a major piece to our puzzle. And it’s just fun to watch her play.”
Arney, however, was on the same side as Claudio’s mother when it came to whether or not he would see her back on the pitch.
“I never wrote her off, even when she said I’m not going to play. She’s too much of a competitor,” Arney said. “We all would have been plenty happy to have her on the sidelines and she would’ve been around. But I just had this feeling.”
Claudio said her mind change as a decision as quickly as flipping a switch. She added that her friends and teammates, especially Mallory Henderson and Brynn Hornbuckle kept encouraging her to get back out there one more time as seniors.
“One minute I was done and the next minute it was let’s go — one last ride with my team. And I’ve been so happy to play with all my teammates, from the new freshmen to my old teammates. It’s just awesome to be playing with them again.”
It was an exciting District 31-5A race to the finish this year. During the final game of the season, McAllen Memorial held a one-point lead, with 33 points, over McHi, after defeating Sharyland Pioneer, earlier in the day. McAllen Rowe and Sharyland High also won their final games and they were tied with McHi at 32 points. The Bulldogs, however, defeated Valley View 9-0 to capture their seventh straight district title.
“Here’s a kid who, if anyone has ever had a legitimate excuse to quit, it was Bri,” Arney said.”She worked hard to return, then tore the other one. Then she got her surgery and during the summer she was working out at 6 a.m. She would go to Doc’s (trainer Joe Ramos) every day in the summer, worked hard and got better.
“You can’t tell she had surgery on either knee. It’s a joy to see a kid who had worked, so hard after the unlucky things in life that happened. It’s been so special to see that.”