NJROTC placed first at the state qualifier meet at Lewisville High School on Sept. 21. This is the first time in the program’s history they have advanced to state.
Six teams competed: color guard, physical training teams, armed and unarmed. The event included six other schools, two of which competed at state last year — Faith Family and Nimitz.
“[Going to state] requires a lot of work,” commander Eduardo Morales said. “ We’ve never been, and it’s brand new to [all of us]. At the same time, [we’ve been given the chance] to prove ourselves.”
NJROTC practices two to three times a week. They practice spacing, alignment and timing within their drills.
”[The students] did better than what they practiced,” chief petty officer Kevin Lewis said. “[In a sense,] they brought the wood. We [were] more than capable of placing first.”
Each of the six teams compete separately in their own categories. The results from each category are added up to produce a final score for the school. The first event of the meet was physical training, which involves members doing push ups, sit ups and a shuttle run down the hosting school’s track. The platoon placed first in this category.
”The [physical portion] of the meet went well,” Lewis said, “We had [multiple people] do [amazing] in the push-up and sit-ups section. We blew everyone out of the water.”
The next category was the academic portion of the meet, where groups are quizzed on their basic military knowledge. This was followed by the mass inspection event, where members stand in a line and get inspected on their uniforms from military officials. The platoon placed second in both categories.
“Being able to remember everything [is] the most scary aspect,” petty officer Iman Anwar said. “It gets nerve-wracking when inspectors are all around. [There’s] one in front of you, one behind, [all] making sure your footwork [and] spacing is correct. But as the day went on, [the] stress [wore] off and [I] got used to it.”
The fourth event was color guard, where two platoons of four participated in separate events: color guard varsity and color guard junior varsity. They present the colors, which consist of two flags: the American and Texas flags, accompanied by two rifles on either end. The platoon placed first. The final categories were armed basics followed by an armed exhibition to round out the event. The platoon placed third in unarmed basic, first in unarmed exhibition and first in both armed categories.
“[I appreciated] the inspector’s comments, especially after the regulation,” Anwar said. “He was like, ‘You are the second best team we saw.’ Last year, during the drill meets we didn’t get comments, but, this time, [the officials] actually interacted [and gave comments,] which I liked.”
The state meet will be held in Prairie View in February. NJROTC will have to gather 12 people in each team and adjust their drill slightly to refine it for state. At state, only two teams can move on to Nationals.
“I couldn’t be [more] proud,” Morales said. “[They] earned it. [They’ve] been working hard and working with their teammates. We’re going to have to bring some new people and train them [to fill in the remaining spots we need for state.] We’re going to need to fix our faults to be good state contenders, but we made the first step. It was hard work getting here and it’s going to be harder work getting to the next level.”
