Roxborough High School dedicates scoreboard to slain teen Nicolas Elizalde
PHILADELPHIA - The community in Roxborough came together Friday to unveil a new football scoreboard dedicated to the life of a Philadelphia teenager tragically gunned down nearly two years ago.
The Nick Elizalde scoreboard now sits at the top of the Roxborough High School football field, in a sobering tribute to a life cut short.
It was a rainy, dreary Friday afternoon as community members and school leaders from Roxborough and WB Saul High School gathered on the football field in honor of one special teen.
Nick Elizalde, described as a gentle, loving soul, was just 14-years-old when he was gunned down during an afternoon football scrimmage at Roxborough High back in September of 2022. Elizalde was a freshman at WB Saul High School in Upper Roxborough who joined The Academies at Roxborough High School's football team.
Yaaseen Bivins, 21, Zyhied Jones, 17, Saleem Miller, 16, and 15-year-old Troy Fletcher were arrested and charged in connection to the deadly shooting. Dayron Burney-Thorn, the fifth suspect in the shooting, eluded police for more than two years before he was captured in Germantown.
The same field he took his final breath on becomes the field where his name lives on.
Nick’s mom, Meredith Elizalde, explained, "I try to fight every day. I try to have hope every day. But, Mother’s Day is particularly hard because I don’t have a child anymore."
She spoke candidly in front of the new scoreboard now bearing her only child’s name.
"I’m happy that our students know that we care, that they are seen, that they deserve functioning equipment and all the thins we can provide them. I hope they feel encouragement to continue participating in sports, doing well in school and just being kids."
She says Nick’s legacy won’t end at the field. "Nick is gone. He’s in paradise and I’m not worried about him. He’s doing much better than any of us could imagine, but the rest of us are left in this misery and our kids deserve better than what we’re giving them."
Adding part of Meredith’s way of honoring Nick is to continue to fight for safer communities for all kids.
"There are people in this state that think handguns should be able to fire at the rate of machine guns. I invite those people to come and sit on this field and feel the heaviness that I feel without my child, my only child, on Mother’s Day and every day," Meredith emotionally described.
With tears in her eyes, Elizalde says there is still work to be done, "I’m asking everyone here, or at home, to get in this fight."
Nick’s mom says her fight isn’t over. She will continue to fight for stronger gun legislation so that, one day, no other mother will have to spend Mother’s Day without her child.
