Jenkins JROTC on top at season half-way point

Male Color Guards are, from left, Fernando Gomez, Andres Jeronimo, Ra'Shon Brady and Keith Kelly. (Photos contributed)

The Jenkins County High School JROTC Drill Team and Color Guard have reached the halfway point of Region 9 drill competitions on top in their respective events. However, the competition has stiffened in all events as of last Saturday, Feb. 9, at Statesboro High School.

After a surprising display of precision drill at the opening meet at home in Millen, and a dominating performance in Swainsboro, the War Eagles went into the Statesboro Drill Meet as the team to beat. Both Statesboro and Southeast Bulloch (SEB), the most experienced teams in Area 9, showed that they had been paying attention to the upstart War Eagles from Jenkins County. SEB stepped up to the challenge in Squad Armed Regulation Male/ Mixed picking up over 103 points from the preceding week to tie Jenkins County for first place. Jenkins County was consistent scoring 1358 points last week and 1363 points at Statesboro. However, SEB came from 1260 points to 1363 showing they are beginning to put more effort into winning this event.

Squad Unarmed Regulation participants are, from left, Kori Hering, Brianna Joiner, Marques Moody, Andres Jeronimo, Courtney Johnson, Paul Salter and Ra'Shon Brady.

The Jenkins County Squad Unarmed Regulation went from outscoring the second place teams in the first two drill meets by 90 plus points to finishing third behind the winner, Statesboro with 1160 points and 2nd place SEB with 1143 points. Jenkins County scored 1122 points, which was 54 points behind their last performance. The Male/Mixed Color Guard picked up one spot coming from 4th the previous week to a much better 3rd place this week, 22 points behind 1st place SEB who scored 729 points and Metter, the 2nd place team with 728 points. The Female Color Guard won first in their event with a score of 711 points, which was 145 points less than their performance.

Squad Armed Regulation participants are, from left, Fernando Gomez, Keith Kelly, Steve Barber, La'Tranese Sapp, Ebony Jeff, Carneisha Bell and Louis Williams.