The countdown begins. Ten. Nine. Eight.
The students prepare for the moment. Seven. Six. Five.
The final seconds remain. Four. Three. Two. One. Lift off.
The AFJROTC Rocketry Team took home the third-place trophy for the parachute landing against Langham Creek High School.
The AFJROTC demonstrated passion during the competition. Everything was perfect—the crisp air, the reassuring weather and team spirits.
“It was good,” junior Shelby Fleming said “We won third place, and it was awesome. Everyone was there, and it was nice to enjoy and it was like a bonding experience.”
Seeing so many people gathered together and enjoying each other’s time was terrific. The AFJROTC had worked hard for this competition, seen through their hard work, dedication to their team, and effort.
“There were 12 schools including ours at the competition,” sophomore Adriana Gutierrez said. “Each team had a chance to shoot one rocket. There were two chances per team to perfect the rocket. If you had a misfire, you were allowed to fix it and it would not count against your team. We had won third place because of the parachute. We also had an exhibition rocket that won first place. We had earned A’s for the spot landing. The first-place team had designed their rocket to be a Saturn rocket, while we did ours over an actual rocket that was in space at some point in history.”
The team had demonstrated pure passion throughout the entire competition.
“This is the first time I’ve gone to a rocketry competition,” senior Christopher Aleman said. “I was the team’s launcher, and I did an alright job. We got third place in parachute spot landing. We also placed first for exhibition rockets. Since this was our first time competing for rocketry, we took notes on what other teams were doing so we could see what else we could improve on besides our results. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and I’m looking forward to doing more of these rocketry meets.”