Aalyah Del Rosario and Angelica Velez came to Louisiana as true freshmen two months ago. It was an unfamiliar place, but the two young women, who were anything but strangers from the Bronx made the move with each other.
Del Rosario came to the United States in 2014 from the Dominican Republic. She met Velez while living in the Bronx in the seventh grade, and the two bonded over basketball. Del Rosario also knew of Kateri Poole, who’s also from the Bronx.
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They embraced the New York style of basketball, especially as their careers progressed. When their careers took them elsewhere, the effort to represent the Bronx remained within them.
“I’ve known Angelica [Velez] since I was in seventh grade. I knew Kateri [Poole] since I came to the States, I knew of her,” Del Rosario said. “Being able to play with them is such a blessing, because not only do you get to be around them, but you get the feel of New York back again being here in Louisiana.”
Del Rosario and Velez both made the move to the Webb School, a boarding school in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, for their high school career. Coming from one of the biggest cities in the world to a small, Southern town of just 400 people couldn’t have been more different.
For Del Rosario, it was hard to leave her school on the outskirts of the city, but the move to the Webb School allowed her to become familiar with how a college setting would be.
For Velez, the decision to move to Tennessee was one she made for the reason of change. She needed a different life away from the Bronx, and going to the Webb School in Tennessee was her way of finding it.
“There’s a lot that goes on in New York and the Bronx,” Velez said. “So I made the decision for myself to get out of the city and make a better life for myself, because I needed to get away.”
The two had successful high school careers at the Webb School, to say the least. They won back-to-back state championships as juniors and seniors, were both top 25-ranked players in the country for their class and both participated in the BallIsLife All-America Game.
Del Rosario won a Gold Medal with the United States U18 FIBA World Cup team in Argentina in 2022, and Velez was awarded the 2023 Division II-A Miss Tennessee Basketball Player of the Year.
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With the platform they had, many major schools came into the picture when it came time for college recruitment, including schools such as Tennessee, Florida State and more who were interested in both players.
For two best friends on and off the court, this was everything they could have dreamt of. However, they never talked about the recruitment process around each other; they never let each other get in the way of making their own decisions.
“She had her own process, and I had my own process. So that’s why we didn’t really talk about it,” Velez said. “She’s going to go to the school that best fits her, and I’m going to go where it best fits me.”
Obviously, both players ended up at LSU. It was far from planned, but it made sense to both of them. They know each other well on and off the court, so taking that to the next level was something they could both benefit from.
It’s one thing to go into a program with a lot of talent, but having chemistry like Del Rosario and Velez have will be very valuable to the team. They know what the other is feeling, and they know how to encourage each other.
“Having a point guard that knows how you play, knows who you are on the court is really important,” Del Rosario said. “Me being able to play with her is such a blessing.”
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Away from the court, however, being in each other’s presence at the college level, a place both worked so hard to get to, is something they feel blessed about. As best friends, being around each other motivates them to play better.
They’re able to play the game they both love, at a place they both love, while representing a city they both love.
Despite ending up in Louisiana after playing their high school careers at a boarding school in Tennessee, both players look back and see that seventh grader from the Bronx who goes to the park to play basketball and loves everything about it.
“Just being here is a blessing. I come from the Bronx, and a lot of kids don’t get this opportunity,” Velez said. “But just to be surrounded by great coaches that I have, my teammates to push me every day…no better place to be than LSU.”
