Hundreds of people gathered from across Las Cruces, most not knowing Romero or his family personally, but wanted to pay their respects. Many of his teammates, including Ben Cruz, chose to remember Romero as a leader on the field and a loving friend off it.<\/p>\n

“He told me everything to do. He was my leader, you know, and I looked up to him. I looked down but I looked up to him, you know, and off the field, you know, just all-around friend, you know, kicking it in the truck all the time you know just hanging out,” Cruz said.<\/p>\n

Las Cruces High, Mayfield and other rival high school also attended to show their respects, deciding to put their on-field rivalry to the side. Erik Dominguez, another teammate of Romero, loved to see everyone come together.<\/p>\n

“It makes me happy seeing that this community is more than just a school or that he’s just a person. He’s a huge thing in this community and made everyone happy and made everyone love him more every single day and it’s just great that people from other schools no matter, who you are or what school you’re from, we could all get together and still be happy.”<\/p>\n

With the rest of their football season ahead of them, Romero’s teammates and coaches know that he will be their 12th man on the field for them and because of that, will continue to play hard in his name.<\/p>\n

“We will playing like he’s still on the field like if he’s still telling us to keep going every single\u00a0day at seven in the morning. You know it’s always going to be there its like he never left,” said Adrian Tercero.<\/p>\n

Even though Abe Romero may be gone, he will always be in the heart of his loved ones and they send him off with one final message.<\/p>\n

“He’s still my captain. I love him. I’m there for his family. I’m there for him and he will always be remembered.”<\/p>\n