REHOBETH, Ala. (WDHN) — The Triple Crown is one of the hardest accomplishments in horse racing and baseball, but what about in JROTC, well Rehobeth High School Navy JROTC has done it. They are going to national competitions for shooting, orienteering, and academics.
The national competition for shooting took place over the weekend in Utah, where one Rebel placed 56th out of 125 Navy JROTC shooters and take to the sky for the first time.
“It just gets our name out their,” 11th Grader who placed 56th at Nationals, Jordyn Allen said. “It allows us to go out and experience things most kids don’t get to experience. So I’ve never flown before I went out there. So I got to fly, play in the snow its just something not everybody gets to do.”
Allen’s 56th-place national finish didn’t come without some adversity as the rifle she brought to the competition broke while in the air.
“We spent 45 minutes of my hour trying to fix my rifle because my seer broke and my sights fell off,” Allen said. “So we were still trying to adjust the first day of shooting.”
Another group headed to nationals is the Brain Brawl group which placed 3rd in their region, which qualifies them for nationals. It is a game show-style competition where they are quizzed on naval science, which is what they study within the Navy JROTC.
They tried a new way of studying and it earned them a trip to New Jersey for Nationals.
“It’s really exciting,” 12th grader Competing at Nationals, Keira Tessalone said. “We’ve never gone to academic nationals. Out of the history of this unit, we have never gone to nationals for academics before. It’s really great to set that precedent.”
The final point on the crown is in orienteering where one Rebel placed 3rd in the region and will go to Georgia to compete at nationals.
“Being able to go to nationals is always a nice thing to do,”12th grader competing at nationals, Ethan Jack said. “It shows what you have been able to accomplish. It shows the hard work you have put in all of these years.”
Orienteering is land navigation with cross country.
It involves running over hills and other rough terrain going up to 5 kilometers which equal a little more than 3 miles.
This year’s team also faced some challenges going into the competition.
“Construction going on all around campus,” Senior Naval Science Instructor, Lt Col. Rob Antolino, USMC, Ret. “We lost our training sites. So to be able to make orienteering championships just with an individual this year is pretty impressive.”
Rehobeth Navy JROTC in the past 8 years has sent 80 students to the military, 5 students to Auburn, and 1 student to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Now the group is made up of 70 students and according to the teachers they are going up against schools with 200 to 300 students in Region 8 which encompasses 5 states.
