By Cadet Nathan Rojas
After being invited to compete for the first time at John F. Kennedy High School’s JROTC Drill and Ceremonies competition, Oct. 21, in La Palma, Sunburst Youth Academy drill team took home two trophies.
Academy cadets won the first-place trophy in the unarmed regulation division and first place in the tap out competition. It was the first time the academy’s Class 32 drill team performed in public. They were the underdogs against the 15 other more experienced high schools competing in dress uniforms.
“It seemed like all these other cadets… with all these medals, our competition was gonna’ be hard to go up against all these other schools that are had more experience than us,” said Cadet Jonathan Jacinto, drill team squad leader.
After three weeks of training in the early morning and late afternoon on the academy campus at Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, the drill team members were prepared to get on the parade deck and compete.
“You know all the time we spent, it paid off. We were able to bring something back home and forever show it off to future cadets,” said Cadet Izabela Stark, who serves as the unarmed drill team commander.
After every routine was finished all high schools reported to the gymnasium. Cadet Uolalio Garcia and hundreds of other participants entered a military style game of tap out. He beat more than a hundred others in the quick-paced drill and ceremonies challenge.
Sunburst drill team’s next performance will be during the academy’s upcoming family day.
Editor’s Note
Nathan Rojas is a student journalist and drill team member at Sunburst Youth Academy.
Sunburst is a high school credit recovery program and leadership academy on Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, which is run in partnership between the California National Guard’s Task Force Torch youth and community programs directorate and the Orange County Department of Education.