Two Berean Christian School student-athletes are having unique and unforgettable senior football season experiences. Steven Sistrunk and Roshiloh Richards are academic classmates by day and rival football opponents by night.
While both Sistrunk and Richards have played varsity football for Berean for the last three years, they were left without a team to play on this fall when Berean announced this past spring that it was suspending its football program due to a lack of participation.
“The Berean Christian School football program is on pause for the 2025-26 school year to allow for a thorough evaluation of its viability going forward,” Athletic Director Doug Walters explained.
That left Sistrunk and Richards, both of whom are enrolled at Berean as seniors, with three athletic options. They could not play a sport at all; or they could play another varsity sport this fall at Berean, such as golf, cross country or swimming; or they could choose another area high school team to play football for. The third option was legal, according to the rules of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), since Berean’s football program has been put on hold.
With those three options on the table, Sistrunk decided to go west to play for the Hawks at Seminole Ridge High School, and Richards elected to travel north to play for the Gators at Palm Beach Gardens High School.
To date, both are delighted with their decisions.
“Seminole Ridge is a top-notch program,” said Sistrunk, 17, who plays middle linebacker on defense, fullback on offense and as a member of the kickoff return unit. “There’s great energy with the players and coaches. The coaches have helped me develop as a player in more ways than I could have ever imagined. The coaches have pushed me to get better and play my hardest.”
“It has been an awesome experience,” added Richards, 17, who plays as an outside linebacker on defense, fullback on offense, and as a member of two special team units, kickoff and kick returns. “The coaches have been a tremendous help to me.”
Both players spent this past summer training and performing off-season conditioning workouts with their respective new teams, which allowed them the chance to acclimatize themselves with their new coaches and teammates.
In the opening week of the 2025 fall football season, Palm Beach Gardens lost to Atlantic High School, 49-19, and Seminole Ridge fell to Glades Central High School, 38-14, in Belle Glade.
Their memories of week one of this football season are vivid for both Sistrunk and Richards.
“It was cool playing a football game out in Belle Glade,” Sistrunk recalled. “There was a good crowd during the game. The atmosphere out there was filled with energy.”
“My favorite memory of the first game was the band,” Richards said. “I have never been able to play football with a band in the background. Overall, the game was extremely fun.”
While every football game on the schedule will be its own unique experience, the game that’s circled on the calendar for both players will be on Friday, Sept. 26, when Palm Beach Gardens hosts Seminole Ridge. It will be an FHSAA Class 6A, District 12 encounter. Naturally, both Sistrunk and Richards expect their own respective teams to prevail in this year’s matchup.
Clearly, this year’s Seminole Ridge-Palm Beach Gardens football game will be another memorable chapter for this pair of Berean senior student-athletes.
