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Written by JJ Felder
Senior Captain Dom Ruggiero is aiming to lead the St. Ignatius wildcats to their seventh straight state championship this year. Ruggiero is one of the senior captains alongside Sam Trivisonno, Bryce Ince-Lovelace and Declan Walters. Few teams in Ohio high school sports have been as dominant as the Wildcats in soccer number of years with 13 state championships since 2005.
This has a been an important year for Ruggiero, who currently leads the team with 19 goals, this summer he had a once in a lifetime chance to visit his grandparent’s hometown in Italy along with most of his cousins. While many student athletes may decide to skip such a trip to focus on their senior season, not Ruggiero, he continued to train while in Italy, trading running in the Metroparks to running around the Italian countryside and playing calcetto (5 a side soccer) with locals to maintain his fitness.
Ruggiero plays a forward on St. Ignatius and has an impressive number of hattricks in his high school career, very much like his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo who dominated world soccer for many years much like Ruggiero and the Wildcats this season.
It’s not just soccer, soccer, soccer with the Ignatius #10, Ruggiero also volunteers with other St. Ignatius students every Sunday evening to provide food to the less fortunate and homeless around Cleveland, at times building relationships and providing meals each week to the same individuals. Dom also visits his grandparents each Sunday for an Italian meal and enjoys spending time with his family and friends. Ruggiero credits St. Ignatius for helping the students develop into responsible young men.
Let’s continue to follow Dom and the Wildcats this season, hoping for another state championship. We may need to start referring to Dom Ruggiero as ‘’DR10’’, just as Cristiano Ronaldo is known as ‘’CR7’’
