JACKSON, TN (May 6, 2015) – Over 3,500 high schools across the country maintain Junior ROTC programs and approximately 400,000 high school cadets take part in the Junior ROTC program nationally, bringing citizenship, discipline, personal responsibility and leadership into the lives of young men and women who voluntarily choose to participate. The cornerstone for many JROTC units is their drill team, which performs in many local and regional drill meets throughout the school year.
At the pinnacle of drill meets stands the National High School Drill Team Championships, the world’s finest drill & ceremony competition. In its 33rd year, “The Nationals”, as it has become known, will host over 150 schools and over 4,000 cadets attending from 30 states and territories. Less than five percent of the thousands of JROTC units nationally are accepted to compete at the National High School Drill Team Championships.
Schools accepted into the Nationals deserve high praise, as their mere selection denotes a level of quality few other programs can boast!
North Side High School JROTC Wins National Competition in Color Guard Division
On Saturday, May 2, 2015, North Side High School’s Air Force JROTC Drill Team “Blue Thunder Guard” won the National Championship in the Color Guard Division for 2015. This victory makes the second time in three years the North Side team has brought the National Championship to Jackson Tennessee. Competing against 39 other teams, North Side dominated the competition scoring 654 points
out of 1200 possible points while their nearest competitor finished 115 points behind.
Colonel Bobby Woods, Jr., the Commander of the Air Force JROTC program, attended the competition and witnessed the performance. Afterward Colonel Woods met with the North Side High School team and stated, “That was a very impressive routine. The qualities of discipline, teamwork and attention to detail you exhibited here will help make you successful the rest of your lives.” Colonel Chris Pope, the Senior Aerospace Instructor at North Side, stated, “I’m very happy for our cadets. They have prepared for this moment all year and it’s great to see their hard work pay off.” The only freshman on the team, Cadet Senior Airman Christian Hale was asked what the hardest part of the competition? Cadet Hale stated, “Actually, the hardest part has been trying to study for my End of Course exams on the drive down here.”
The four cadets on the team were Cadet Major Ethan Allen, Cadet Captain Elijah Gasmen, Cadet Chief Master Sergeant Alex Kipp and Cadet Senior Airman Christian Hale. Cadet Allen said “Our theme in class this year has been ‘Building a Culture of Excellence’ and today it showed.” Cadet Chief Master Sergeant Alex Kipp, the only member from last year’s second place team returning to this year’s competition was ecstatic “Wow, what an incredible experience…we’re the National Champions!”
