National Champion JROTC Caprock drill team performs for Rep. Ronny Jackson
The national champion Caprock High School Marine JROTC drill team put on a private performance Friday for U.S. Congressman Ronny Jackson at the Caprock High School Gym.
Winning the national championship last month in the competition in Daytona Beach, Florida, over 12 top drill teams from all over the nation, Caprock finished first in both the unarmed and armed exhibition to take the overall drill championship. Caprock also finished second in unarmed inspection and unarmed regulation competitions to finish more than 200 points above the runner-up in the competition.
Jackson traveled to Caprock High School to meet with the team and honor its achievement. Over the past three years of competition, the Caprock team has placed second nationally twice in the previous four two competitions and has shown to be one of the premier drill teams in the country.
MGySgt Michael Harris, the senior Marine instructor for the team, spoke about the visit from the congressman and the championship that his team achieved.
“For the last four years, we have gone to nationals and two of the years, we placed second; for this year’s competition, the team was focused on being the top team,” Harris said. “In years past, it seemed like the team kind of put in cruise by just making the nationals; this year was different. The seniors led the work ethic to take the team to the next level. There was a lot more accountability for the team this year, with the leadership stepping up to make the extra effort.”
Harris, who has been leading the program over the past seven years, said that over the years, the more his teams developed and won awards, the more the team was motivated to achieve more.
“Once we won our first trophy, we slowly developed over time where these students expect to compete with the best,” Harris said.
Asked about how his team felt about the visit from Jackson, Harris said his team was honored to get the recognition.
“We turned this into another lesson about what a congressman does,” Harris said. “They were super excited to meet a congressman and put on a show for our representative. These guys were nervous, but they worked through it.”
Following the visit from Jackson, the Caprock drill team put on an exhibition before the Sod Poodles Game at Hodgetown Stadium later in the afternoon.
Members of the Caprock Marine JROTC Team:
Jossalin Arellano
Riggs Arrasmith - Color Guard Commander
Jadon Bilderback
Keishandra Bujanda
Jonathan Bushey
Halo Garcia
Nataley Garcia
Valentina Garcia
Angel Gomez
Kat’lyn Gonzales
Diego Hernandez
Marissa Hernandez - Unarmed Drill Team Commander
Dominick Jacquez - Armed Drill Team Commander
Alan Lozano
Raymond Nath
J. Pham
Leland Poole
Miguel Reyes
Joshua Rimel
Angel Rodriguez
Derek Smith
Harley Speilbauer
Joel Valdez
Cooper White
Instructors
MGySgt Michael Harris
MSgt Jonathan Scott
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: National champion Caprock drill team performs for Rep. Ronny Jackson
