JROTC competed in a drill meet on March 19 at Tarleton State University. Out of 26 other drill teams, Legacy won third place overall.
The department earned second place in the Male Color Guard Division, third place in Unarmed Exhibition Drill and second in Commander’s Challenge.
“I feel very proud,” JROTC department head Sergeant Major Smith said. “I have the best cadets in the world. They truly take pride in what they represent.”
Thaddeus Brown, the Armed Drill Team Commander and Physical Training Team Commander, feels proud of how the drill meet went. This is the first time they have been allowed to place in the overall rankings; usually they are automatically disqualified from overall because they do not compete in every event.
“I felt pretty good about placing third,” Brown said. “Usually we’re disqualified [from overall] automatically because we don’t do Exhibition but we’re really happy we got to place this time.”
Juniors Francisco Rodriguez and Jorge Trevino earned third place in Armed Drill Tandem, a duo exhibition in which two cadets perform various tricks with ten pound rifles. The judges score based on the difficulty of the tricks performed, the length of the performance and the overall execution.
“Every team has to come up with their own method,” Rodriguez said. “We get a lot of our inspiration from YouTube, but we always put our own spin on it.”
The duo only practiced for two weeks and were up against 12 other teams, many of which had competed for years.
“It was pretty exhilarating,” Rodriguez said. “I’m incredibly proud of our performance at the drill meet, and hopefully that will transfer into our performance at the next drill meet.”
