Robert F. Kennedy High School senior cheerleaders Esmeralda Rodriguez and Sadie Baldone won a summer cheer camp trip to London, England, to participate in the upcoming New Year’s Day parade.
Both girls have cheered for four years at Kennedy and previously cheered youth soccer, Esmeralda with the Delano Stallions and Sadie Delano with the Bengals.
The selected All-Americans at the cheer camp, both before and after school, have been busy raising funds to cover the cost of the trip.
Esmeralda, daughter of Paola Rodriguez and Luis Rodriguez, and Sadie, daughter of Cynthia Paez, worked on the fundraiser. On September 24, Esmeralda was also chosen as Queen of Delano’s Harvest Festival.
The cheerleaders, along with coach/counselor Natalie Fragoso, participated in the Varsity Spirit Spectacular at Magic Kingdom Nov. 17-22 in Walt Disney World, Florida. Cheerleading members from across the nation represented Varsity spirit marks.
The senior girls will spend December 26th through January 2nd training with the All-American team and seeing some sights as well.
As Natalie reported, assistant entertainer Celeste Carcha will be moving to London after accompanying the couple to the Magic Kingdom.
Cesar Chavez High School’s special fall sports awards have been honored.
For varsity volleyball, Noelani Espiritu was named Most Valuable Player along with Natalie Duran as Offensive Player of the Year and Amber Dela Cruz as Defensive Player of the Year.
Rylie Ledesma won the Titan award and Evelyn Garza won the best defensive player award for the JV volleyball team. Haley McClintock won the freshman Titan Spirit Award with Elly Espiritu being recognized as the top defensive player.
Cristian Duran was the cross country MVP. Nivardo Cortez was honored for leadership and Julian Lagunsad was most improved. Leah Kaehler was named most improved and Nancy Mireles was named “best teammate.”
Mailee Francisco was MVP for the league’s girls tennis team. Liauni Ando won the most improved award and Sydney Franco won the coaches award. For JV girls tennis, Mirabella Pina was most valuable and Kimberly Basurto was most improved.
Gabriella Renteria was the girls golf MVP, Marleny Sanchez was the most improved, and Daniela Torres was the coach’s award winner.
Varsity football Titan of the Year was Andres Rodriguez. Jorge Angulo won the Special Forces Player of the Year Award.
Other university awards were Joseph Garcia, for the Benny Alcala character award; Nathen Fernandez, utility player; Moises Moreno, defensive line coaches award; Gavin Contreras, defensive player of the year; Jonathan Garcia, defensive lineman of the year; Matthew Guerra, defensive skill player of the year; Israel Gonzalez, offensive player of the year; Ryan Ruiz, Offensive Skills Player of the Year; Damyan Ruiz, offensive lineman of the year; and Santana Morales, offensive coaches award.
The JV football Titan of the year was Seth Delarmente. Daniel Quevedo won the defensive coaches award; Defensive Player of the Year Emmanuel Edeza, Offensive Player of the Year Adiel Rocha and Offensive Coaches Award Winner Javan Kim.
For the first division team, Fares Ba Abad was the Titan of the Year. Jeshua Romero won for offensive linemen, Arminder Bhatti for the offensive coaches award, Arturo Galvan for the defensive linemen and Alex Cantoriano for the defensive coaches award.
Teams from all three Delano high schools qualified for the Nov. 19 state finals at Bolsa Grande High School in Southern California.
In their category, the Cesar Chavez musicians placed third overall, the percussion group third, and the assistant sixth.
Delano High was ranked 11th in its division, the percussionists were fifth, and the backing band was 15th.
Robert F. Kennedy High was ranked 14th in its division, the percussionists were ranked 14th in the state and the backing band was ranked 15th.
There were so many people helping out at the free Thanksgiving meal in the parking lot of Tony’s Firehouse Grill – serving 1,500 or more meals that day – that I didn’t find out until the next day that there was a fourth City Council person.
Mayor Bryan Osorio was inside the big tent manning a service line booth. I don’t know if those waiters had a break or if they had to serve the full three hours.
Robert F. Kennedy High football coach Mario Millan was inducted into Delano High’s Athletic Hall of Fame last June as a football quarterback.
If Kennedy starts the Hall of Fame, he will surely be inducted as a coach. He joined the Kennedy coaching staff in 2014 and has seen the program move from Division 6 to this year’s Division 3.
Kennedy was the champion of the valley in his division in 2014, 2015 and 2018. Millan was the varsity defensive coordinator for the first two years under coach Dennis Moody and the third crown head coach. Millan was the 2018 Kern County Coach of the Year, and this fall the Thunderbirds won their first South Sequoia League football championship and belted Fresno-Sunnyside High on Nov. 25, 40-20, for the Division 3 sectional title.
Millan, now in his 28th year as superintendent at Richgrove Elementary School, seems to be having too much fun coaching the T-bird football team to think about retirement.
McFarland’s Christmas Parade is scheduled for McFarland starting at 6:00 p.m. Saturday.
The parade will be the 41st annual event.
It’s probably not too late for local residents to get into the spirit by donating toys – or Christmas money – to the Toys for Tots program that benefits the communities of Delano and McFarland.
Alex Grijalva can be reached by local program manager Adriana Salinas at 661-203-3377. This number should be called to pick up unwrapped toys or checks/cash, or you can drop off your donation at the Delano Chamber of Commerce office.
Salinas says this year’s goal is to help 2,000 families in the area. The distribution for families determined by the surrounding schools will take place on December 16 at La Vina Middle School.
The Delano Kiwanis Club schedules many local activities for the community, but members of the all-male organization are probably in their teens.
Kiwanian Steve Kinsey said the group had too many December activities, but was hoping another organization could hold a contest to reward residents/businesses with great recognition outside of the Christmas season.
