PORT ANGELES — The Roughriders’ Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps will compete against teams from six other schools at Port Angeles High School on Saturday.
The public is encouraged to attend and show support for the Port Angeles team at the high school at 304 E. Park Ave.
Beginning at 9 a.m. various competitions will occur throughout the day.
A schedule of the day’s events is available at www.portangelesschools.org.
A total of seven teams will compete, with visiting schools from Arlington, Oak Harbor, Everett, Marysville, Burlington-Edison and Snohomish.
Judges are active duty members of the Coast Guard, Marines, Army and Navy.
“We anticipate that Coast Guard and Army helicopters (HH-65 Dauphin, AH-64 Apache, and UH-60 Blackhawk) will join the competition as static displays and will be open to the public, weather permitting,” said Jonathan Picker, Port Angeles High School’s senior naval science instructor.
“Aircraft are homeported at U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Angeles and Joint Base Lewis McCord.”
The event will culminate at about 4:30 p.m. with an awards ceremony. Trophies will be awarded to the top three teams.
This is the first time the high school has hosted a JROTC competition.
Concessions will be available for purchase. Port Angeles High School’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps “Roughrider Company” is a highly decorated unit with about 120 cadets. The unit historically achieves a 98 percent on-time graduation rate for cadets with four years in the unit, and has received the Distinguished Unit Award annually since 2006.
The unit is the current overall Northwest Drill and Rifle state champion and has been the Armed Drill state champion for the last three years.
For more information, call Picker at 360-565-1977; or call Patsene Dashiell, communications and community relations coordinator at 360-565-3703.
