Gallery • 4 Photos

photo or infographic by Gaby DeLaRosa

KEEP PUSHING. Senior Joshua Baldwin is getting ready to swim in the relay event while all of his fellow cadets support the team. After the Ranger swim event all the participants were exhausted, but happy.

Thirty seven cadets loaded the bus on their day off to represent the school and their corps. Thirty seven students practiced hours after school to make their best even better. They practiced marching, shooting, swimming and working together as a team. When they loaded the bus at the end of the day, there were awards to celebrate. Six events and many accolades led the group to an 8th place finish. 

The AFJROTC participated in the annual Houston ISD Bluebonnet Open Drill and Military Skills Meet on March 4 at  Westside High School. This was the largest competition AFJROTC has taken part in, and the program had its most cadets in a meet in over 15 years. The cadets will be competing again on April 1, 2023 at Klein Forest High School for the Arbor Day Invitational Drill Meet.

“When I step on the drill pad I tell myself it’s game time,” senior Jasmine Rodriguez said. “I am focused. My brain just kind of shuts down, and I just go.”

Ranger swim finished 2nd out of 11 teams. It consisted of exhausting dead weight pushes, partner swimming and sprints. The encouragement from fellow cadets was what got them through. 

“Oh, man, the cheering was great, and all the swimmers loved it,” senior Bernardo Salazar said. “It was very motivating, and it showed that y’all wanted us to win. It pushed us even more and it really goes to show when people cheer it drives you to do better.”

The Primary Color Guard team placed 7th out of 31 schools. Anticipation for competition was built for two weeks. Secondary Color Guard placed 1st in inspection out of 20 teams. This team consists of all freshman and female cadets. 

“I was a little nervous but not too much,” freshman Riley Jones said. “But other than that I was like let’s get this over with, we’ve been training for a long time and the time to do it is now.”

Cadets got inspected before performing the routines, this meant training instructors were up close inspecting their uniforms and military bearing.

“How I overcome nervousness at comp is putting myself in the mindset where I’ve done this before,” Rodriguez said. “It’s no different and I tell myself those people grading us are just regular people. Ha, ha. I gaslight myself.”