Colony High School JROTC members compete in regional competitions

For the first time in the program’s history, the Colony High School JROTC program sent two teams to regional competitions last month. The Drone Team competed at the Western Regional JROTC Drone Competition in Reno, Nevada on Feb. 21 and 22. The Air Rifle Marksmanship Team competed at the Western Regional Air Rifle Competition in Sandy, Utah on Feb. 7-9.

Western Regional JROTC Drone Competition

The Colony Drone Team competed both against and alongside 53 other schools from across the Western States. The competition was broken into four categories: Autonomous Flight, Teamwork Mission, Skilled Piloting and Professional Interviews.

C/1SG Collin Roberts is the captain of the drone team. He described how the team worked together to accomplish a variety of flight tasks, including piloting the drone in specific patterns, around and through obstacles and engaging the drone with various targets.

“The objective is teamwork,” C/1SG Roberts said. “You really want to be a cohesive team.”

C/2LT Logan Bullington was the team programmer. His role was to program the drone to complete various tasks to fly without direct pilot control. He learned to write programs, something he had never done before joining the team.

“He figured it out, and then he went beyond that,” Colony Army JROTC Instructor Major Brent Richey, US Army (Retired) said. “Then he became one of the best programmers at the competition.”

C/2LT Bullington said that he not only learned how to program the drone, but also learned the importance of working towards and accomplishing a goal.

“What I learned is that if you take all the time you need, say if you want to learn programming, take all the time you need…you’re going to get it very easily,” C/2LT Bullington said. “It’s one of the easiest and it’s pretty fun, once you learn how to do it properly.”

The team also consisted of C/SGM Haylee Makar in charge of Logistics, Primary Pilot C/PFC Stephen Makar and Co Pilot C/PFC Lisa Kackman. Each team member held an important role, from piloting drones, to making sure the team came to the competition each day with a full set of charged batteries.

Because the team traveled from Alaska and was considered “overseas,” they had the opportunity to arrive in Reno a day prior to the event. They used their time to visit with the ROTC unit at the University of Nevada, Reno, where they interacted with the professor of Military science and senior ROTC cadets. They were also able to take in historic sights around the area and experience staying in a five star resort hotel.

Competing at a regional level not only provided students the ability to grow their skills within the program, but also provided them an opportunity to travel out of the state and expand their life skills.

“Personally, I learned a lot of patience, and of course the world runs off of patience,” C/SGM Haylee said. “Life is going to throw things at you that you don’t necessarily expect or want and you're just going to have to learn to go with it.”

Being that this was the first competition they had participated in, the team wasn’t quite sure what to expect. MAJ (R) Richey explained that they will be ready for the competition in 2026.

“Next year, we’re going to be way more prepared because we know how to train,” MAJ (R) Richey said. “We’re going to know how to win next year, and that’s what's going to happen.”

Western Regional Air Rifle Competition

The Colony Air Rifle Marksmanship Team also made their way to the Lower 48 last month for regional competition. The event spanned over two days, where teams shot one round each day. Rounds consisted of shooting 20 targets from three different positions - prone, kneeling and standing.

Their season began in August, when members practiced to qualify to be on one of the three teams at Colony. Placement on the teams was based on shooting proficiency, ability to work as a team and attendance. Teams practiced after school and the regional team ramped up their efforts leading up to the event.

From learning how to travel with firearms, to adjusting to shooting electronic targets instead of the paper targets they were used to shooting at home, and shooting under stress and fatigue, the team took away many new experiences from the competition. While the team will not be moving on to national competition, Colony JROTC Army Instructor and team coach Sergeant First Class Peter Trevino, US Army (Retired) said that they know what to improve on for their next competition.

“As their coach, the biggest thing that I saw, and will probably be one of our big fixes going into next year, is learning to take our time and slow down when shooting,” SFC(R) Trevino said. “I think we all learned and saw by the numbers and by how quickly they finished, that taking your time will be one of the key takeaways that we saw at competition.”

Being able to learn and adjust to changes and new experiences was an important takeaway for 1st Co Captain C/1LT Kiatcha Carveiro. This was her first trip traveling with her team out of the state.

“It was new, you had to learn to adapt to the new environment and with people as well, and how to talk for yourself,” C/1LT Carveiro said. “And a little nerve-wracking because you don’t know a lot of things in that new environment or area out of state. ”

Shooters included C/SGT Annika Pawlik and C/SGT James Tvrs-Krafft. C/SGT Tvrs-Krafft reflected on how he enjoyed the experiences he had while being on the team. He explained how he learned breath control and breathing techniques, how to hold his composure while shooting in competition and made new connections with his team members throughout the season.

2nd Co Captain C/MAJ Lorelei Anderson said that she initially joined the team to challenge herself to be the best person and the best shooter that she could be.

“My main goal for being on the team was I wanted to be the best,” C/MAJ Anderson said. “I always want to be the best, but there’s always going to be somebody that’s better than you. I kept that in mind, but I’m still super competitive when it comes to the sport because I want to always be the best.”

C/MAJ Anderson went on to explain how much it meant to her to be part of the rifle team at Colony High School.

“I wear it as a badge of honor because I really enjoy this and know that my teammates have put in just as much effort, if not more,” C/MAJ Anderson said. “It makes me feel a sense of pride to know that I’m on such a good team.”

A returning shooter to the team, C/1LT Carveiro shared how she has grown during her time on the rifle team.

“It changed my perspective on being patient and not being negative about myself and to overcome the thoughts that run through your mind when you’re trying to compete with others,” C/1LT Carveiro said. “That taught me a lot on how to be more positive about your mindset and how you shoot and those around you as well.”

SFC (R) Trevino said he was proud of his cadets for how well they conducted themselves in their first regional competition and looks forward to returning next year.

“The first year going, it was a feat in itself,” SFC (R) Trevino said. “I told each one of my cadets that I was proud of the simple fact that we made it there, and that was something to tip my hat to them.”