PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles High School Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) will host the Northwest Drill and Rifle Division Competition on Feb. 10, the first time the regional contest has been scheduled in Port Angeles.
Port Angeles and six other high school teams will compete in a variety of contests beginning at 9 a.m. at the high school at 304 E. Park Ave.
Visiting high schools are Arlington, Oak Harbor, Everett, Marysville, Burlington-Edison and Snohomish. The competition will culminate with an awards ceremony, with trophies being awarded to the top three teams.
A schedule of the day’s events will be available on the Port Angeles School District website at https://portangelesschools.org/home closer to the event.
Judges will be active duty members of the Coast Guard, Marines, Army and Navy, according to district officials.
“We anticipate that Coast Guard and Army helicopters (HH-65 Dolphin, 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,” he added.
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.
It 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, contact Picker at 360-565-1977.
