By Tavarus Pennington

Reporter

South has an ambitious new team that puts an aggressive, new meaning to character building.

The ROTC Raider team is a physically oriented team of JROTC students who compete against other school teams in various military and character building challenges. There are challenges such as a 10K road march, rope bridging, reading maps and navigating, and survival skills.

In other words, a Raider team competition is basically made up of many different skills challenges designed to give an idea of military structure and discipline.

The reasons for starting a team such as this were always for the greater good of the ROTC students.

Colonel Stan Cole and Sargent Raymond Gonzales are the sponsors for the ROTC Raider team. Although they organize the team meets and other logistics, they are mostly hands-off regarding practices, allowing this team be student-led.

Senior Braden Hoovey leads practices for this team. He instructs the team on what the workout for practice will be and is the team captain for this new team at South.

This concept of a student-led team invites a feeling of comfort by being pushed by peers instead of being stressed by being pushed by a coach. It also reinforces the ideal of teamwork.

Colonel Cole and Sargent Gonzales both agreed that the student led factor shows teamwork. They also agreed that the athletes on this team are “learning a lot of new skills”.

“The kids wanted to do something physically oriented,” Colonel Cole said.

And what better time to introduce yet another beneficial opportunity for students than in the year of Building Legacy at South.

The Raider team has two meets for their first season. Their first meet is Saturday at Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington. The meets consist of a day of competitions mostly against Army and Marine JROTC high schools throughout the Kansas City area. South stands out because they are an Air Force JROTC high school and many Air Force high schools do not have a Raider team.

The new team is attacking their goal of character building with a ferocious and exhausting technique.

“It’s interesting to see kids run six-miles in practice for the first time,” Sargent Gonzales said

Carlos Francisco Velásquez-Vargas and Errol “Tre” Barbee are both standout members of ROTC Raider team.

“We learn survival skills and get fit during practices. It brings a physical aspect to character building,” Velásquez-Vargas said.

The purpose of this team is to essentially bring fun and camaraderie through physical trials and achievement in order to build a person up.

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I believe the purpose of Raider team is the same as the purpose of any other sport. This purpose is to help individuals search and find the best versions of themselves through adversity and competition, only with a military twist .

— Carlos Francisco Velasquez-Vargas

And the purpose of being on a team such as Raider team is only articulated by the benefits of it.

“Benefits of Raider team are that you get to work better with your teammates, you get more involved with the corps, and you get to meet new people from new schools” Barbee said.

This new program at South has massive upside for students willing to commit to becoming the best version of themselves.

The players are anticipating their very first chance to participate in something beneficial to themselves and creates a good name for their school. The JROTC program has not fallen behind in its endeavors of Building Legacy.