Galaxy of post-season All-Star selections galore at end of a star-studded fall season to remember

December 4, 2024 at 10:27 p.m.

Blind Brook senior forward Nico Palacios was named to the small school All-State soccer team, the only Blind Brook or Port Chester fall season athlete to make an All-State team so far. (Joseph DeCarlo/Westmore News)

Before the fall scholastic sports season ever began, Blind Brook aimed for the stars and came close to hitting the celestial bullseye by season's end.

With the various post-season All-Star selections almost all in, the Trojan and Lady Trojan student-athletes have far exceeded all preseason expectations.

And while Port Chester's All-Star results won't all be in until the end of the week, the Rams and Lady Rams also did very well indeed.

The brightest stars

Here's a look at the sky-high postseason achievements at both schools with the Blind Brook selections coming first.

    Junior Oriah Rosenfeld is among three Blind Brook volleyball players who have been named to the All-League and All-Section teams.
 By Joseph DeCarlo   

Blind Brook senior forward Nico Palacios was named to the small school All-State soccer team last Friday (11/29)—the only player from Blind Brook or Port Chester to make a fall season All-State team. At least so far.

Because the odds are good that one of Blind Brook's girls’ volleyball Big 3—school assist recordholder Fernanda Julian or one of the high-scoring Rosenfeld twins (Oriah and Ella) will also make the yet-to-be-announced girls’ All-State VB team.

The reason why that's almost a sure thing: The Lady Trojans won the first state championship in school history and Blind Brook's first ever state title Nov. 29 against Westhill, and that trifecta led the way to the 3-1 victory at the Cool Insuring Arena in upstate Glen Falls.

But no matter how those girls’ VB All-State selections turn out, as of this past weekend (11/29/12/1) Blind Brook had already won a record number of postseason All-Star selections (42) in four fall sports—volleyball, soccer, tennis and cheerleading—according to the Blind Brook Athletic Department.

Success by the numbers

The Lady Trojan Vballers were the individual leaders of the pack with 14 selections on the All-Section, All Conference and All-League level while the combined Trojans and Lady Trojans soccer teams scored 18 selections in those categories.

    Blind Brook girls’ soccer standout Kayleigh Curran received All-League and All-Section honors.
 By Joseph DeCarlo   

All three teams had fall seasons to remember—the Vballers also won their second sectional championship in the past three years as well as the school's first ever regional and state championships. Both soccer teams lost close in the semi-finals of the sectional championships. And the Lady Trojans also won the tennis league championship with their captain Ella Mensch making the All-League Team.

So there was plenty to cheer about—including two Lady Trojan cheerleaders being named to the All-League cheer team while head VB coach Gina Carlone was selected as Coach of the Year.

Names of the local stars

That all adds up to a veritable planetarium of local stars in the All-Star galaxy, a stellar constellation of glitterati. The individual Blind Brook star quality players and the awards they received follow:

ALL-SECTION: Volleyball stalwarts Fernanda Julian, Ella and Oriah Rosenfeld. Soccer standouts Nico Palacios, Kayleigh Curran, So Ochiwa and Luka Cuk. The All-Section Soccer Honorable Mentions include Natalie Carey and Lola Gonzalez.

ALL CONFERENCE: Maria Gracia Leyva-Pereyra, volleyball.

ALL-LEAGUE: Vballers Julian, the Rosenfelds, Leyva-Pereyra, Georgianna Haas, Madeline Hirsch, Tanisha Venkatapur. Soccer: Kayleigh Curran, Natalie Carey, Lola Gonzalez, Ashley Brookman, Isabella Montesano, Sena Tarnoff, Achiwa, Cuk, Palacios, Dylan McRedmond, Cooper Schloss and Henrique De Luca Almeida. The tennis and cheer All-Leaguers include Mensch and cheerleaders Hannah Levine and Ava Muoio.

ALL-LEAGUE HONORABLE MENTION: Gabriella Cavallo, Makayla Dutra, Alexandra Maniscalco, Kendall Konigsberg, Tyler and Zachary Taerstein, Jack Shaw and Noah Brookman. And Vballers Sasha Jhangimal and Annabel Rosenfeld.

All that starry luster can't entirely eclipse the darkness that followed two soccer sectional semi-final losses that could have been wins with a break or two.

    Port Chester sophomore Gianna Rende made the All-League girls’ soccer team along with her teammates Gioiella Pastena and Kimberly Morocho, both senior co-captains.
 By Joseph DeCarlo   

The Lady Trojans soccer team, for example, had one of the fall season's toughest losses—losing 1-0 on penalty kicks to Briarcliff in the Section 1 Class B sectional semifinals. But that couldn't take away the overall excellent play by head coach Brian Sullivan's 12-5-1 team led by tri-captains Dutra, Carey and Curran and powered by a senior-filled lineup that included Alexandra Maniscalco, Alexandra Rubin, Sofia Padilla and Anna Vnenchak. Sophomore Lola Gonzalez was their leading scorer and Gabby Cavallo and Ashley Brookman were the most promising freshmen. So they could well be back next year for another shot at the title.

Blind Brook's Trojans soccer team finished the fall season 10-1-5, their only regular season loss coming in the last game to Pleasantville, and then they lost to Rye Neck 1-0 in the semi-finals of the Section 1, Class B championships. That's the same Rye Neck team Blind Brook tied against twice during the regular season playing them to a draw in 0-0 and 1-1 games with Rye Neck going on to lose close in the state semi-finals. But those close Blind Brook losses didn't detract from a great season that saw the Trojans’ superb play recognized. Nico Palacios was the only local player to make the All-State team so far while goalie Luka Cuk and the speedy So Achiwa were ranked with the best in Section 1, and studs like Dylan McRedmond, Cooper Schloss and Henrique De Luca Almeida rated right up there with the league's best with the Taersteins, Shaw and Noah Brookman right behind them as honorable mentions.

Port Chester stars so far

Over in Port Chester, James Ryan, athletic director, said earlier this week that the Rams and Lady Rams fall postseason awards were still coming in "and should be up before the end of the week. There were some last-minute additions to the team, so we will not post them until they are accurate."

But this much was already certain: Bruising Ram senior fullback and next-level two-way player John Pauletti was named Hudson Valley Football League (independent league) offensive player of the year, as voted on by the head football coaches from that league. Rams soccer player David Dolores was the only Port Chester student-athlete to be named to the All-Section as well as the All-League team with other All-Leaguers including Bertrand Moreau and Marcos Barajas.

Lady Ram senior soccer co-captains Gioiella Pastena and Kimberly Morocho made the All-Section Team along with sophomore Gianna Rende while the All-Leaguers include seniors Alison Lopez, goalie Tamara Correia and striker Saidy Hernandez.

All of this recognition brings to mind the quote from William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" that goes: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves...." It implies that our faults lie with ourselves, our own choices and actions, not with destiny or fate. And while nobody was going around Blind Brook or Port Chester quoting that line from Shakespeare, it does underline how hard the local student-athletes worked to make the various All-Star teams. It also  stresses the importance of the supporting roles team players had in that success. And that's why all the positive teamwork—one for all, all for one—has helped make this such a memorably star-studded fall season.