McCallie School graduating senior Gui Vivaldini has been named the 2020-21 Gatorade Tennessee Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
Vivaldini led the Blue Tornado with 14 goals and seven assists this spring. McCallie completed an 8-2-2 season in 2021, defeated Montgomery Bell Academy in the TSSAA Division II-AA state quarterfinals on the road and advanced to the state semifinals. The program has made it to the state’s final four each season since 2015.
The 2021 DII-AA East Region Player of the Year, Vivaldini was the nation’s only sophomore to be named TopDrawerSoccer.com All-American in 2019.
He helped lead the Blue Tornado to the State Championship and a No. 10 national ranking that year, and a No. 2 national ranking in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He concluded his career with 41 goals and 23 assists.
An excellent student with a 3.88 grade point average, he will continue his academics and athletics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
The Gatorade award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field. He qualifies to be a finalist for the Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year award which will be announced later this month.
"I am so proud of Gui,” McCallie head coach Chris Cushenbery said. “He's a phenomenal player, a fantastic student, a great dorm advisor, and his teammates love him.
“More than anything, he gave us so many moments of brilliance that we will remember forever. His goal against Christ Presbyterian, his goal against Chattanooga Christian, his performance against MBA this year; his teammates and coaches will never forget them.”
Vivaldini is the third McCallie player to win the prestigious Player of the Year honor. Drew Viscomi won the award in 2017, and Ben Stafford was the 1997 winner.
“The award is a huge honor for Gui, but it's much bigger than that,” Cushenbery said. “This doesn't happen without his teammates and all the guys like Drew Viscomi and Ben Stafford and others who built the program’s foundation. We've had five other All-Americans in the last five years, six other DI players, a guy on his national team; those guys and others created a platform for Gui to showcase his skills, so the award is something everybody in the Long Blue Line can take pride in and celebrate."