Freshman David Beltran was named the winner of the Sedona Red Rock High School boys’ soccer team’s sixth annual Golden Boot award during the SRRHS fall sports banquet on Thursday, Nov. 7.

The Golden Boot award was created by former head coach Sam Blom, who is now a Sedona Oak Creek School District Governing Board member.

The award is earned by whichever player has the most goals and assists at the end of the season. Head coach Gavin Shippen said that he looked forward to continuing the tradition since it gives equal weight to assists and would support his focus on passing and ball control.

Beltran accumulated eight goals and five assists this season, narrowly beating senior Alexis Flores Casas, who had nine goals and three assists.

The prior winners of the Golden Boot were Clark Borjon in 2019, Luis Beltran in 2020 and 2021 and Carlos Gonzalez in 2022 and 2023. 

Beltran said that his favorite memory this season was that of the team’s Sept. 10 home game against the Camp Verde High School Cowboys when the Scorpions were down 3-0 at halftime. Beltran proceeded to kick three consecutive goals in the second half for the team to walk away with a tie 

“It was an amazing hat  trick of a game for David with some highlight reel goals in there for sure,” Shippen said.

“The fact that he’s a freshman and he played midfield a lot is impressive, how he won this award,” Blom said. “I was not surprised that he did as well this year as he did in eighth grade. He’s improved his skill level, and he’s gotten taller since I coached him six months ago … [Beltran] can change the game and he’s going to get better every year.”

Shippen said that while he was officiating middle school games last season, he noted Beltran’s talent, and commented that Beltran had to decide either to play varsity soccer or for Major League Soccer’s development program MLS Next.

“When you play in the MLS Next league, you can’t play high school,” Shippen said. “David had a hard decision to make. ‘Do I play with my club team, or do I play high school? Do I try to take my soccer career as far as I can with MLS Next or do I play with my friends and my companions and all my classmates?’

“It was a tough decision for him, and I hope that he’s happy with the decision that he made, because I know there are a lot of good memories created and hopefully learned a lot from us too.”