Rose ceremony honors senior football players and cheerleaders at homecoming game finale

October 25, 2023 at 11:20 p.m.

Senior cheerleader Mayelin Gonzalez was crowned homecoming queen during a pep rally Friday, Oct. 20. (Lennon Anderson/Westmore News)

    Senior football captain John Delcid was named homecoming king at the pep rally.
 By Lennon Anderson   

Everything was coming up roses before the start of the regular season-ending football game between Port Chester and Poughkeepsie last Saturday (10/21) at John Ryan Stadium. The curtain raiser was the traditional rose ceremony before the Homecoming Game.

As part of that tradition, Port Chester honors their senior football players and cheerleaders for their dedication.

But that's not all. Because at the same time, Port Chester honors the families of the athletes for their support.

And that, in turn, means that all seniors present their parents (or guardians, family members or someone special to them) with a rose before kickoff.

The ceremony was scheduled to start promptly at 1:15 p.m., just before the scheduled 1:30 p.m. kickoff with all participants to assemble in the lower bleachers of the stadium at the 50-yard-line at 1 p.m.

And it did, given a few minutes here and there because the game didn't start until about 1:45 p.m.

But it was worth the wait. Because the honorees have given Ram football fans so much to remember.

The football Rams honored included the Ram tri-captains—John Delcid, Jaden Barbour and Alejandro Velasquez—and then went on alphabetically from A to Z:

Brian Aguilera, Franklin Cabrera, Anthony Escobedo, Nathan Provencher, Miguel Valdovinos, Fabrizio Vasquez and Danny Zhagui.

The cheerleaders included: Allegra Burke, Valeryn Deras, Angela Esquivel, Christian Flores, Mariana Gamez, Mayelin Gonzalez, Adrian Osorio, Allison Recinos and Olivia Tejeda.

Thanks for the memories as well as your dedication to Ram and Lady Ram pride in Port Chester.

And it didn't hurt any that the Rams beat Poughkeepsie 23-6 to make the playoffs in the season-ending finale in a game they had to win to qualify.