O’Neill High School’s Parent Teacher Student Council hosted another successful Homecoming Parade on Main St. in Highland Falls last week. Athletic teams, school district coaches and administrators, the JROTC, and local emergency services took over the street starting at 5 p.m., followed by a full pep rally in the municipal parking lot across from Sacred Heart School.

Parents, family, friends and fans of the high school’s athletic program lined the street and then filled the parking lot during the rally.

Grand marshal of the parade was O’Neill’s vocal music teacher, Lucas Rau; he also served as the master of ceremony of the pep rally, introducing captains from each of the varsity teams to speak about their teams’ seasons so far, as well as their homecoming week schedules.

Members of the school’s Select Chorus, under the direction of Rau, performed the National Anthem. Among the singers were student athletes.

Also speaking were O’Neill Principal Dr. Michael Curtin and HF-FMCSD Athletic Director Brooks Alexander, both of whom were first-timers at the event. They thanked the PTSC and all involved in organizing it and also thanked the Highland Falls and Fort Montgomery community for the welcome they have received to their roles at O’Neill.

Curtin called it “a wonderful community that I have become a part of over the last couple of months”.

“I think when you live in a place you start to take some things for granted,” he said, “and its great when someone comes in from the outside and sees some of the things that we don’t always appreciate, like the fact that we have football players in our chorus. It’s an incredible thing that we have students who are so well rounded and love their school so much and have so much pride. We’re not just a school of scholars and athletes and drama people – we have lots of kids who do all those things and more and that’s something to really be proud of. Go Raiders!”

Alexander noted that “absolutely nothing unifies and galvanizes a community like its high school”.

“Each and every one of you standing here today represents James I. O’Neill every single time you take the field, you take the court … and you do it magnificently,” he said. “I’m at practices daily and I see how hard you work, and how much you want to win. But winning and losing is merely a byproduct – it’s not our primary goal. Our primary goal is that every time we take the field we represent James I. O’Neill and our community to the best of our abilities. And you do it so well.”

The varsity cheerleaders closed out the rally, with two of their most popular cheers. Through it all was DJ Pat Flynn provided music for the parade and rally.