The Raiders, a physical and mental competition group students can join through the school’s The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) class, have a team of 14 students who spend hours pushing themselves mentally and physically to their limits.
The competitions are not your run-of-the-mill school events – these competitions are modeled after military exercises.
“Raiders are kinda like tough mudder competitions. Obstacle courses, five-kilometer runs, carrying liters across rough terrain, and a couple of extra team events that test both physical, mental and leadership strength as a team, ” said Senior Army Instructor Brennan Cook.
Raiders go to competitions around the U.S.A. to compete against different schools. So far the team has won seven trophies after only being to three competitions. The members must push themselves and each other at practice while gaining leadership skills. No member is ever considered better than the other, everyone is on the same level and success relies on peer support and encouragement.
“You’re going to learn about yourself a lot in the physical realm, so a lot of kids do not understand how much you can push yourself physically. You have to push your peers. At some point, you’ll learn leadership skills as long as you stay in it for more than a year. You’re going to have to help push your teammates especially if you’re one of the stronger students,” said Cook.
Some members of the team have discovered new things about themselves along the way.
“One of the hardest things I had to overcome in Raiders was that I wasn’t the best and that was someone better than me,” said Senior Auston Bayless, a member of Raiders. “It helped me understand that I’m not the best of the best. I’m just a generic guy who tries his best on things and I’ve got a good amount of leadership. I’ve found what I want to do in life by one year of Raiders and JROTC and I’ve been trying to work toward that goal.”
The Raiders develop and rely on teamwork to complete physically grueling activities.
“The hardest event probably is the five-kilometer run,” Cook said. “They have to do that as a team, finish as a team and do it in uniform in boots, not in tennis shoes. A couple of events have obstacle courses, so they’re climbing over walls, doing pull-ups, or pulling your buddy over a wall climbing ropes. So it’s generally six to eight minutes of a lot of pain. And you have to do it as a team, not individual events, you might have some that are really strong in some events, and some that are not as strong, and they have to figure out how to work as a team and get across the obstacles.”
Raiders can give the members insight into what basic training in the military looks like. Allowing members to know what they would expect in the military.
“Raiders is basically like a high school version of military basic boot camp.” Said Bayless. “No one is ever better than the other person and you guys are down below at the bottom, and you gotta compete with other teams like the actual military. Where you are competing against other companies. You’re lifting tires, carrying stretchers and climbing walls in the obstacle course.”
To join Raiders students have to be in a JROTC class, but from there every team is open if a student passes the physical requirements. The tryouts are in the Fall semester, and students are tested on pull-ups, curl-ups, the three-mile run, the two-mile run and the one-mile run. After that scores are taken and the top-scoring students get a place on the Raiders team. There’s no room for drama on the team, everyone is treated the same.
“Come on out and join the program first, JROTC first.” Cook said. “[If] you’re fit, you like running, and can pull up your body weight on the pull-up bar. Come on out.”
