By Christina Dimyan

On Friday, April 29, ROTC left for Daytona Beach, Fla. to compete in Nationals. Their trip wasn’t all fun and games though; waking up at four in the morning to compete and practice proved to be a little less than a vacation.

The four-day journey began on Saturday where they took the day to practice and prepare for the competitions over the next three days. On Sunday, they went through inspection where they were asked basic questions which  got them thinking on their feet. The questions asked may not make sense at all, but they’re meant to catch cadets off guard.

“We definitely try our hardest and it shows. We practice the whole year and in the end the practice is worth it and really shows,” junior cadet Whitney O’Connell said.

Afterward, they compete in a knockout competition. One thousand cadets performed basic commands in front of about 30 judges. Their goal was to perform each command perfectly to avoid elimination. Awards were given to the top 10. Six were from Madison. Senior Dallin Young placed first out of the 1,000 other competitors. Young also won commander trophy for third place out of all 60 schools.

“It felt pretty cool being third in the nation. All [of] my hard work from past years in ROTC showed and reflected the team’s commitment to me and helped me succeed as well as I did,” Young said.

Monday consisted of color-guard and exhibition competitions. Exhibition includes platoon and squad. On Tuesday the teams got a chance to relax and explore Daytona Beach in reward for all their hard work.

Out of  60 schools, girls placed eighth in the nation and boys placed tenth. The district ranking for NEISD comes from the rank made at nationals. With that, it puts boys second in the district and puts girls  fourth  in the district.

“These were the best teams I’ve taken to nationals in nine years and they were outstanding,” Lieutenant Colonel Amador Cano said.