November 12, marked the start of the long anticipated Drill Competition season for Woodrow Wilson High School’s Air Force Junior Reserves Training Corps. The Drill Team has been a part of Woodrow’s curriculum for many years, giving the students the unique ability to practice and perform military style exercises. Last year the team competed in the National All Service Competition and achieved fourth place.
In order to maintain their high ranking, the team practices Monday-Thursday after school until 5:00, with an additional practice in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursday. Every cadet is willed and required to attend. To help ease the freshman recruits, the team holds a Drill Academy yearly.
Currently the victorious organization is led by junior, Charles “Cheese” Canaday. Taking his passion for his leadership role, Cheese has demonstrated a sincere love for his teammates. “There’s been a lot of participation and a lot of it’s been very willing and they’re very involved.” With this increasing participation of underclassmen and the skills demonstrated, Cheese believes that he has a winning team. In accordance with this belief, Cheese plans to take his group to the Fayette Institution of Tech Competition. “I feel like a kid with a Lego set in front of me, I have the instructions and the finished picture. But each individual brick in that set doesn’t know what it’s gonna do, it just knows it has a role to play.”
The Drill Dogs will start their glorious season on December 7, at Spring Valley. The competition, hopefully concluding in success, will be against a variety of teams across the state. For updated information and progress reports please consider following the AFJROTC official Instagram, “wv_391_offical_insta.”
