Nease NJROTC won its opening drill competition of the 2017-2018 season, taking home first place for the fourth consecutive year at the annual Ed White High School NS1 (freshmen) Drill Meet on Sept. 30 in Jacksonville.
In addition to claiming the overall trophy, Nease picked up first place trophies for Academics, Armed Basic Drill and the 8 x 220 Relay Race. The group also picked up second place in Personnel Inspection, Unarmed Basic and the 16 x 100 Relay Race.
“It’s the Nease way,” said senior cadet Niko Paspalaris, who commanded the Unarmed Basic Drill team. “Our senior cadets train the freshmen nearly every day. We compete against great programs, and we decided as a group that we would not be out-worked.”
Several cadets took home individual honors as well. Cadet Dylan Dosio won first place in Academics; Forrest Vosburg won the Knockout Drill; Emily Stanley won the Women’s Mile and Andrew Sakala finished second in the Men’s Mile.
“Our freshman (NS1) class has demonstrated tremendous work ethic since the first day of school,” said Drill Team Commander Erin Sass, who led the team into the competition. “Their efforts were justly rewarded.”
Nease has been recognized for having one of the top NJROTC programs in the nation. The school’s unit has been ranked the No. 1 unit in Area-12 – which includes North Florida and the State of Georgia – for five of the past six years, and was the No. 1 unit in the nation in 2015.
