During the 2022-2023 school year, the JROTC Drill Team came away from the Rocky Mountain National Drill Meet with five first-place and two second-place trophies. Although those squads set the bar high, this year’s team matched and improved on last year by winning five first-place, one second-place, one third-place and three fourth-place events. This included beating the two-time national champion Ozark High School.

The team expanded upon last year’s participation by including not only an unarmed team and one color guard, but also this year brought a full unarmed team and a full armed platoon. This year the team took 31 cadets to compete. They competed against teams from all over the United States, including a team from Guam.

Although students see the Drill Team perform at the Veteran’s Day ceremony, that’s just a small part of what they do. The team practices all year from 2:45 p.m. to 5 p.m., working hard to perfect its drill routine and ceremonies with precision to compete at the highest levels.

The competition lasted from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and after an exhausting day, the drill teams came out with the following results:

First Place – Fifth Brigade Overall
First Place – Overall Unarmed
First Place – Unarmed Inspection
First Place – 5280 Color Guard
First Place – Unarmed Duo (Shariscid Holt and Cloe Robinson)
Second Place – Commanders Trophy
Third Place – Overall Colorguard
Fourth Place – Armed Overall
Fourth Place – Unarmed Regulation
Fourth Place – Unarmed Exhibition

The commanders of the drill teams were Brianna Nicole Maerki (Overall Unarmed), Joseph Micheal Newton (Overall Armed), Cass Deegann Ruiz (Armed Platoon and Exhibition), Cloe Robinson (Unarmed Exhibition), Alarus (Starr) Clayborn (Unarmed Platoon), Sharicid Holt (5280 Color Guard) and Jayceon Alexander Rock (Overall Colorguard).