The high school experience is never complete without being involved in various activities. That is one thing that always separates us from the lower levels, students really begin to find themselves. I love all the different activities that our kids can be involved in and the way they find a group of people to gel with. You never know whether it’s going to be athletics or activities, but we really do some amazing things around here. So many different clubs and other sponsored events give kids rich, diverse access to so many fun things to consider for the future. Yes, we have Esports to basketball, the band to drama club to knit lit and so many more. This year, our JROTC program is on a quest to place at nationals and represent our community in competition.
The JROTC program is all about leadership. The goal of the program is to produce “Good Americans” as their motto would say, but underlying it’s really about creating leadership opportunities for students to get involved. Recently our kids had a showcase night at one of our basketball games and celebrated the almost 40 years of history. It is truly amazing all of the people who have been involved in our JROTC program over so many years. Though I enjoy the past and talking to all the people who came before us, I don’t want to take anything away from the spectacular things that these kids are doing. Once again, our JROTC program is trying to make a run at a national title. To accomplish that goal, our students arrive in the morning at 6 a.m. and practice before school. The drill team competes all over the midwest and really creates opportunities for students to be leaders. In no way, shape or form do these kids necessarily join the military, but all of them walk away with a leadership experience. I’m always impressed by how well these students work and focus on the routines, the commands and being in sync to really show off their skills. At our basketball game, the JROTC drill team took over the halftime show and man was it a show. I want to thank the Anthony Wayne crowd and, of course, our home Blue Devil crowd, because when our kids performed there was no doubt of the love that was in the room for how hard they worked and how well they did. Between the third and fourth quarter, we also had a moment to celebrate first Sergeant Ricky Thomas. Sgt. Thomas has given more than 20 years of his time to this school, to the JROTC program, to the community and to our kids. When he retired from the military, I like to tease him saying he could have gone off into the sunset, but he saw a greater mission.
The drill team then had the qualifying round and performed at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, in the Seventh Brigade Championships, which consists of all the Army JROTC drill teams in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Our Emerald Guard Drill Team performed extraordinary in all the armed categories from armed platoon inspection, armed platoon individual rifle, armed color guard and finally armed platoon exhibition. There were some tough teams from all the states, but our Emerald Guard Armed Platoon exhibition team finished in second place. After this performance, they were selected by the Army JROTC Seventh Brigade to represent them for the All Army and All Service National Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida, on May 3, 4 and 5. Congratulations to our JROTC Emerald Guard Drill Team.
I am very excited about our chances and can’t wait to see Holland, Ohio, on display at the national level with all the teams across the country. If you would like to help donate to send our kids to nationals, reach out to our main office and we will put you in contact with our JROTC booster.
