Winter high school sports season began Monday
November 20, 2024 at 11:34 p.m.
The new high school winter sports season started Monday (11/18) for Port Chester and Blind Brook on a sun-splashed day that made it look as though the summer that never ends hasn't ended yet despite the chill in the air.
But the fall scholastic sports season has also yet to end and there is still more to cheer about with the postseason playoffs still going on and two local teams still playing even as the landscape starts taking on a wintry look. The skeletal trees have shed most of their orange and red leaves and the late November winds hint at the winter snows to come.
Still in championship play
The Blind Brook volleyball team won its second sectional championship in the past three years and will be playing in the state championship semifinals Saturday (11/23) in Glens Falls, N.Y.
And the Port Chester cheerleading team won three divisional championships in the United Cheerleaders Association Regional Championships this past weekend (11/16/17) and qualified for the national championships in February at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
Both schools have postseason fall All-Star selections galore.
By the numbers
With registration still underway, Port Chester estimates more than 300 student athletes will register for six varsity sports—basketball, wrestling, indoor Track and Field, bowling, ice hockey, boys’ swimming, and competitive cheerleading—according to Athletic Director James Ryan.
By the time registration closes, Blind Brook predicts 163 student athletes will have signed up for basketball, ice hockey, indoor T&F, cheerleading and boys swimming, according to senior office athletic coordinator Lauren Fantone.
Hoop-di-do doings
While Blind Brook will have two new hoops coaches (John Aguilar for boys’ varsity basketball and Max Brock for JV girls’ hoops), according to Fantone, Port Chester won't have any major charges in head coaches, Ryan said.
Senior David Dolores was the only Port Chester boys’ soccer player named to the All-Section team as well as the All-League team for his exceptional play during the 2024 season.By Joseph DeCarlo
But its boys’ varsity basketball team will be playing more out-of-section games in the region to round out their schedule. And head Rams hoops coach Greg Cole will have a major hole to fill because Guillermo (Memo) Zabala, the team's leading scorer and All-League/All-Conference player who set a school record with 60 points in a single game, has graduated and is playing for Arizona State.
Lady Rams head hoops coach Danny Davis has a similar problem: He must replace freshman wunderkind McKayla McLoughlin, the Celtic Tigress, a two-year varsity starter at point guard as well as the boys’ football mod squad quarterback and linebacker, who transferred to high-powered Mercersburg Academy, a Pennsylvania prep school, to enhance her college athletic scholarship possibilities.
After the fall
But Davis is used to that kind of search—Kayleigh Heckel, arguably one of the best Lady Rams basketball players, transferred out of Port Chester to play for Long Island Lutheran, one of the top ranked hoops prep school powerhouses in the country, and her switch paid off with an athletic scholarship to the University of Southern California, one of the nation's top-ranked collegiate teams.
But those are stories for the winter season to come and the fall season has not yet been put to bed.
"During the fall season we had over 400 students register and participate," according to Ryan, the Port Chester AD. "All of our teams competed in postseason games or qualifiers, and we have multiple student athletes that have qualified for All-League and (will) qualify for scholar athlete designation (to be done in early December). We are proud of the way our student athletes represented their school district and community and the hard work and dedication they exemplified."
The missing Heart
What about the "Heart of a Giant Award?" he was asked.
"Our coaching staff has not nominated anyone for the Heart of a Giant award," Ryan said.
Which seemed odd because the USA Football Heart of a Giant Award, now in its 10th year, was established by the New York Giants pro football team and the Hospital for Special Surgery to recognize outstanding tri-state area high school football players, mascots, team managers and others who have been nominated by their coaches for their commitment, teamwork, will, character and dedication. Rams like Jakym Jordan and John Delcid have been nominated in the recent past. And Ram senior two-way fullback John Pauletti, Mr. Touchdown, the Rams’ leading ground-gainer, sixth-ranked rusher in Section 1, a next-level player, seemed like a sure shot nominee. Especially since he has a pre-existing heart condition that limited his number of carries, but that didn't stop him. And he still gained more than 1,000 yards despite the opposition keying on him because he ran an estimated 90% of the Rams’ predictable offense up the middle and carried the Rams literally and figuratively on his back throughout their 3-4 independent league season, going both ways on offense and defense. Taking hit after hit uncomplainingly. Always showing the heart of a giant. Yet he was not nominated for the award.
Nor was Ram kicker Luis Granados, the two-way lineman whose leg was broken—dashing any hopes of a college football scholarship as a kicker—early in the season's next-to-last game against Tappan Zee, was ambulanced to White Plains Hospital and insisted on returning to the high school, on crutches, his leg in a cast, to be there with his teammates for the post-mortem after the loss and stood on the sidelines, on crutches, rooting his team home in their season finale homecoming win against Panas in which Pauletti scored the tying TD and winning 2-point conversion with under four minutes left to play, seemingly carrying most of the Panas team on his back into the end zone.
They may not have been nominated by the Rams football coaching staff, but Westmore News thinks their contributions are worth noting.
Fall season highlights
The fall season produced more than its share of local heroes, including Blind Brook's boys’ soccer team losing 1-0 to Rye Neck, going down in the Section 1 semifinals in a classic against the team they played twice to ties (0-0 and 1-1) during the regular season. But the Trojans’ superb play was recognized in the number of postseason awards received with Nico Palacios, Luka Cuk and So Achiwa being named to the All-Section Team with Dylan McRedmond, Cooper Schloss and Quique Almeida joining that trio on the All-League Team and Honorable Mention going to Tyler and Zach Taerstein, Jack Shaw and Noah Brookman.
Port Chester's soccer Rams and Lady Rams also had very good fall seasons. The Rams lost in the quarterfinals of the playoffs to Scarsdale, the top ranked team in Section 1 and one of the best in the state. The Lady Rams lost to Mamaroneck in the first round of the one-and-done playoffs, but simply making the playoffs represented quite a turnaround because they were 3-12 last year. Both teams received postseason All-Star honors: The Rams’ David Dolores was named to the All-Section Team and joined Bertrand Moreau and Marcos Barajas on the All-League Team. And Lady Ram seniors Gioiella Pastena and Jennifer Morocho were named to the All-League Team along with sophomore Gianna Rende while the Honorable Mentions included Alison Lopez, Tamara Correia, Saidy Hernandez and Kelly Mendoza.
More to cheer for
There's lots more All-Stars yet to be named because a galaxy of potential local stars is still shining while soaring to new heights before the fall season championships end.
Port Chester's Ryan preferred to wait until all the postseason All-Star selections were in and so did Blind Brook's Fantone. That means the rest of that All-Star story will have to wait for the winter season to get underway once the official practices give way to meaningful game play. But it will be well worth waiting for because the local ballers really rocked and rolled the fall away.
Blind Brook head coach Gina Carlone's Lady Trojan vballers absolutely killed it in the playoffs and regionals on their way to the state championship New York Public High School Athletic Association (NYPHSAA) semifinal round Saturday (11/23) in upstate Glens Falls.
Along the way to the semis, the Lady Trojans beat Westlake and Putnam Valley in the playoffs and won their second sectional championship in the past three years by upsetting Valhalla 3-0, a club that beat them twice during the regular season, in the finals Nov. 16 at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, then toppled Ichabod Crane High School 3-2 in the regionals last Saturday (11/16) at Yorktown. And their run isn't over yet with their Big 3—Fernanda Julian and the Rosenfeld twins (Ella and Oriah) sure to make all kinds of postseason All-Star teams with at least four other key players—Tanisha Venkatapur, Maddie Hirsch, Maria Gracia Leyva and Georgianna Haas also in the running for potential postseason honors as is Carlone a likely candidate for a Coach of the Year award.
And Port Chester head coach John Gonzalez's vastly improved cheerleading team swept three divisional championships this past Saturday and Sunday (11/16/17) in the United Cheerleaders Association (UCA) Regional Qualifiers in Johnstown, Pa., thus winning a chance to compete in the UCA Nationals in February at Disney World for the third consecutive year. They will be competing for more titles in the UCA Empire Regional Championships for NY teams Dec. 15 at Iona College in New Rochelle with potential cheerleading postseason starry-eyed performers including Gabriel Ponce, Kelly Pascale, Madison Mollica, Amy Navas, Charlotte Burke, Yvonne Santiago, Melina Morban, Mia and Madison Pagnotta, Josse Carrillo, Jadalyn Moscoso Gonzalez, Myisha Cruz, Kate Richardson, Natalie Ceruzzi, Fiona Lovallo, Manuel Barcenas and Elizabeth Magana.
The fall season ain't over until it's over and it ain't over yet. Even as the new winter season practice has begun. Because there's still playing and cheering time left for more fall season stellar performers to shine and wish upon a star. And then let the winter games begin with still more stars in the offing.
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