By Michael Letendre
The 2023 City Series cross country meet was more than just your typical clash between Bristol Central, Bristol Eastern and St. Paul Catholic.
The showdown had a bigger meaning on Thursday afternoon.
A moment of silence was held for Lt. Dustin DeMonte and Sgt. Alex Hamzy before the girls race on the one-year anniversary of their heroic efforts in the line of duty.
Later on, all the programs came to honor and celebrate Angel Ramirez, a former Bristol Central harrier and track and field star, that is courageously battling Stage-4 brain cancer.
Ramirez was the honorary starter that day, sounding the horn to commence the boys race, and helped to hand out awards to the top medalists at the end.
“We wanted today to be about him,” said Central coach Tamara Stafford-Kirk of Ramirez. “He has meant so much to this program.”
Cancer is a dreaded decease that has affected so many lives around the world and one of the goals of the meet was to raise money for Ramirez and his family.
Every competitor wore ‘Angel Strong’ shirts in support of Ramirez that afternoon.
“He’s always been a special kid,” said Stafford-Kirk. “From the beginning, there was just always a smile on his face and always so positive. He was one of those kids who had his outdoor track season stolen by Covid during his senior year. These guys probably would have placed at Nationals in outdoor track in the relays. And he always just stayed so positive about it.”
“So, when I heard about this, we just wanted to make sure that we honored him and the family, do whatever we could to support them going through this.”
Most of the kids and young adults who are affected by cancer have a no-quit attitude and refuse to let the decease take them.
Ramirez is no exception.
He’s determined to beat cancer and, by all accounts, Ramirez probably will in the end.
Stafford-Kirk recounted a story in which she heard that the “news wasn’t so great after [his] surgery” and she found herself upset in a Chicago basement at a volleyball tournament that her daughter Lily was participating in.
But Ramirez told his longtime coach that he was going to beat cancer and was going to run again.
“He is an angel. He’s one of the strongest kids I’ve ever coached physically and mentally,” said Stafford-Kirk. “He just loves the sport of track and field and cross country and that’s why when we made the ‘Angel Strong’ shirts, we had the wings put on it because that’s what Angel is.”
“We’re going to beat this and that’s why we’re here.”
Ramirez is a role model and an inspiration as he fights cancer — looking to beat this thing once and for all.
And with the Bristol community in his corner, Ramirez expects to be around for a long time — taking in more than a couple city series cross country meets down the road, cheering on his former team.
“There are bigger things out there that we celebrated today,” said Stafford-Kirk. “We just wanted the Ramirez family and Angel to know that we are with you every step of the way, you are never alone, you mean so much to the program and you’re going to beat this. We’re going to beat this together and we’re going to celebrate you here next year Angel Strong.”
“We love you.”
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