Smith-Cotton JROTC places in national competition

Byron Tyson, 17, thought his team had no hope the night before the Junior ROTC national drill team competition.

When awards were handed out, his team, Smith-Cotton High School’s Gold Tigers, placed seventh overall and third in team exhibition. Tyson, the unarmed drill team commander, walked away the second best commander in the country.

The drill and color guard teams have participated in the national competition, held in Daytona Beach, Fla., for three years alongside 4,000 students from more than 145 schools in 35 states.

“When they called third place, I thought ... they won’t call me,” said Tyson. When he heard, he said he was so excited he “ran down and forgot my hat” to accept his award.

The Gold Tigers struggled in practice. Tyson said the team kept making mistakes on column files to the right, in which groups march together to form a line.

Once in competition, “the light clicked on” and they got it, he said.

His fellow competitors, Brandon Hammond and Haley Schmadeke, each walked away with awards in the individual drill down, which Schmadeke described as like the children’s game Simon Says.

Schmedeke said the students all stood on the floor following commands as\ 75 judges observed them. Students who made a mistake were out.
All the Smith-Cotton students competed in the high-pressure event. Hammond said he and Schmadeke like the other events better, and found it funny they finished highest among Smith-Cotton competitors in individual drill.

The other Smith-Cotton team, the Black Tigers, finished seventh in the armed drill team regulation competition and a 14th place overall.
Sgt. Maj. Randall Woods,the JROTC instructor, said it usually takes eight to 10 years for teams to place at the invitation-only national competition. Smith-Cotton, whose program is four years old, was the only team west of the Mississippi to win, he said.

Senior Steven Potter, who commanded the armed drill team, said there was a big difference between the first year the team competed and this year.

“I see this year that our drill team is more close together ... in our friendship together,” he said.

The team arrived in Florida by bus April 30 and competed on May 3 in individual and team events in which they were judged on everything from how their uniforms looked to knowledge of military history. Students memorized a series of drill commands and showed their marching ability.
“The drill team is more like a mental sport, you have to have your mind in it,” said Potter.

agualtieri@sedaliademocrat.com