On March 19, the South Rowan High School JROTC Raider Challenge Team took second place overall at the Annual Fourth Brigade “Best of the Best” Raider competition, besting teams representing 20 high schools from North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
Each competing team had qualified over the past several months by placing at least third in Raider Challenge meets held in the several states. The winners came together on the campus of UNC-Charlotte to determine the final champion.
The five-event competition included a modified physical fitness test consisting of push-ups, sit-ups and 1-mile run, a 3-mile team run, single rope bridge, military truck pull and stretcher carry.
South Rowan’s Rope Bridge time was so fast that the team time of 1 minute, 12 seconds was challenged by a team coach who complained that the only way possible to do it that fast was by not correctly tying all the necessary knots.
The South Rowan Raiders were given the choice of being penalized or rerunning the event. They opted to redo and finished with a new time of 1 minute and 6 seconds — all under the watchful eyes of several coaches, competition cadre and interested spectators.
South Rowan placed second in the physical fitness event, losing only to the team from South Carolina that would eventually win first place overall. South Rowan’s Jonathon Ruiz scored highest of all male competitors and won the coveted Iron Man trophy.
One week later, the South Rowan JROTC Drill Team competed at the U.S. Army Eastern Regional Drill Championships in Washington, D.C. This is a by-invitation competition; participating schools had to qualify with superior scores at drill competitions leading up to the regional championship.
Thirty-three cadets from South Rowan participated in various squad- and platoon-sized events, to include routines with drill weapons and without, standard drill and exhibition drill. Lead by Team Captain Cadet Major Misty Parrish the Raiders finished fourth overall in brigade events and seventh overall against more than 40 schools representing the national eastern region.
Within the state of North Carolina, South Rowan finished the year with the number one Raider Challenge team and the number two drill team.
As the end of the school year rapidly approaches, South Rowan JROTC is preparing to send 18 cadets to the Junior Cadet Leadership Course at Boy Scout Camp Bud Schiele in Rutherford County. This is a fourth Brigade Cadet Command sponsored training event. Of the 24 schools attending, South Rowan received the largest number of student allocations, a testament to the high regard this program is accorded by the Cadet Command leadership.