AFJROTC students take part in competitions

Arlington’s AFJROTC teams participated in a number of competitions this season and a couple of students will move on to the regional competition this month.

The Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps works to prepare students for a number of drill and skill competitions throughout the year.

For Arlington High School’s teams this includes a new unarmed drill team and other drill teams.

Student Areanna Schuerman performed well and participates in dual person drills.

“For me and my partner we got first in the first three competitions,” she said. The two students are moving on to regionals this month.

“It’s nerve-wracking, because last year when we went it was a different environment. There are other teams that do way crazy more stuff,” she said.

“We’re working really hard and trying to get a routine together and make it more complex,” she said.

Teacher Mike Blue, who leads the AFJROTC program at the school, said that Schuerman and her partner put in a lot of work this year.

“They’ve set the tone of what you can do if you put in the practice time,” he said. “They’ve put in a lot of time and it shows, and that’s why they’re moving on.”

The school’s “Cyber Patriot” team also performed well. That team focuses on securing computer systems.

“We’re taking a virtual system that has a lot of flaws with it and just trying to make it secure,” said student Jacob Stickles.

Stickles said the school’s team did more to look at new methods this year.

“We started researching new ways to secure systems that we haven’t done before,” he said. “Because in previous years we would get far but then we would hit a wall and didn’t know what to do.”

The competition went pretty well for this year’s team, who placed first in the state.

“With the Cyber Patriot competition, the guys were really accelerating a lot faster than we’ve seen in previous years,” said Blue.

“We got into the semi-finals and it was levels of difficulty harder than previous ones,” he said.

The Cyber Patriot competition is graded on a national scale, and Arlington’s team finished 54th, which was good for first in the state, although only the top 13 go on to the national competition.

Blue also wanted to mention some of the marksmanship teams which have also succeeded in competitions.

“The good thing about this year is that some of the first-year students are doing really well, especially for marksmanship, including one of our freshman. She is shooting better than most of our students,” he said.

The competitions help students prepare for life after graduation. “There’s all of the different things you’re going to need when you move on to future selves,” he said.

They’re also good for camaraderie, he said.

Students also said they enjoyed getting to know their teammates.

“Just getting to know more people and hanging out with the people you already know. It’s just a good way to build relationships,” said student Eleanor Kikuchi.

“Driving on the bus to the competitions, for me, personally, is one of the best parts, because we all sing and we’re all one team,” said Schuerman.