The JROTC Raider program is a challenging and exciting part of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). JROTC is a program offered in many high schools across the United States that teaches students leadership, discipline, and teamwork. Within JROTC, Raider is a special team that focuses on physical fitness, outdoor skills, and mental toughness. Many students join the Raider team to push themselves, become stronger, and build friendships with other cadets.
The main focus of Raider is physical training. Members of the Raider team work hard to improve their strength, endurance, and agility. They practice exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and running. Often, they train with heavy backpacks or weights to make the exercises even tougher. This helps them prepare for competitions, where teams from different schools compete against each other in a series of physical challenges. Events at these competitions might include long-distance running, obstacle courses, rope bridges, and carrying heavy objects as a team. The goal is to complete each task as fast as possible, which requires both strength and teamwork.
Raider members have many testimonies from their experience in Kentucky, from the trials they faced, to the discipline they learned throughout their experience. Logan Barta, senior, participated in rope bridge, personal training (PT) and cross country rescue (CCR). Barta expressed feeling a lot of responsibility on herself because of the roles she had during each event.
“Our practices to prepare us for Raider were very grueling and hard physically and mentally,” Barta said. “But because of that whenever I actually went out and participated in my events I was able to push through and not get stressed out.”
Every cadet has to push themselves to their limit, and sometimes over. The events during Raider needed more than just physical strength, but also strong endurance. Zaccaias Rivera, senior, participated in the 5K run, rope bridge, personal training (PT) and cross country rescue (CCR). Rivera said during the Raider competition he was able to act on the fly, he was able to be flexible for any event they needed him to be on and he didn’t have a static mind.
“Being in Kentucky I learned how to push myself beyond those limits I had and I learned how to work better in a team environment.” River said. “Training really hard everyday, locking in mentally and not allowing distractions to get to me really helped my mental.”
The preparations, practices and drills to prepare the cadets for Kentucky Raider Nationals was created by Kaitlyn Maxson, senior. Maxson participated in the gauntlet event, rope bridge, personal training (PT) and cross country rescue (CCR). Maxson said in order to get her team ready she made cardio the main focus of her training sessions, but she also had to find a team that would work well together.
“For each of my team members I’m looking for different aspects, because in order to build a good team, you have to have a well-rounded team.” Maxson said. “I had to look for people who were great runners, people who were good at lifting, and people who are good with precision. It’s honestly just looking for different qualities of people and how they interact with each other.”
Team members had goals and priorities set in place before they arrived. Simona Petrova, co-captain, junior, participated in gauntlet, 5k run, rope bridge, and country rescue (CCR), expressed his main priority for his team.
“Teamwork has always been one of my biggest priorities, because without teamwork, you can’t really do anything.” Petrova said. “So I’ve always been really focused on teamwork and then from there, it’s just about communication and working with everyone else for the goal to do what we can.”
While in Kentucky, the team was mentored and watched by Retired Lieutenant Colonel Aricai Berry, JROTC instructor. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Berry expressed how proud she was for the accomplishments her team made in Kentucky.
“My goal for my students was for the. to go to Kentucky and compete at the highest level, do the best they can and come back with no injuries.” Lieutenant Colonel Berry said.
In the end, the Kentucky Raider competition of 2024 was about more than just winning. It was about teamwork, courage, and friendship. Each team left the event stronger, not just physically but also mentally.