For the past seven years, Nease High School’s NJROTC’s 40-person drill team has competed at the 12-school Terry Parker Sanctioned Drill Meet in Jacksonville. And for the seventh straight year, the team has returned to Ponte Vedra holding the competition’s top prize.
Along with seven consecutive Mandarin Drill Meet victories, Nease has dominated the northern Florida NJROTC drill landscape since 2013.
Nease will compete in March at the Area-12 Florida-Georgia State Championships, seeking its sixth consecutive title and will then make a trip to the Navy National Championships in April.
“Every JROTC program has a reputation,” said Cadet Battalion Chief of Staff Yuan Tian. “And at Nease it’s drill.”
Drill is much more than a marching competition. Drill meet championships include a series of 10 individual events, including: unarmed and armed marching, color guard, personnel inspection, academics, pushups, sit-ups and running relays. Points awarded in each event are combined to determine the day’s overall winner.
This year Nease won first place in Personnel Inspection, Academics, Athletics Overall, Sit-ups, Pushups, Overall Drill, Color Guard and Unarmed Basic Drill.
Thirteen cadets took home individual medals for top-5 finishes in academics or athletics. Leading the way with first place medals were Lindy Gostage – Female Pushups (89), Brogan Donnelly – Male Sit-ups (303) and Emmelie Neff – Female Sit-ups (318).
Nease is currently the number-one ranked NJROTC drill team in Area 12 (59 programs covering northern Florida and the state of Georgia), having won the Area-12 Drill Championship each of the past five years. The team has won all three of its drill competitions this season and will seek to make it six state championships in a row March 7 in Douglas, Georgia where the best 16 schools in Area-12 will vie for top honors and the right to compete at the Navy National Drill Championships in April.
“This group of cadets has worked harder than any other team,” said naval science instructor Master Chief Duane Spears. “The commitment, motivation, energy and enthusiasm is unlike any I’ve seen.”
“Today gets us one step closer to the prize,” said Cadet Battalion Commander Elkhan Bagirov. “The road to the Navy National Championship only gets tougher with each competition.”
Other top schools in the competition were Mandarin High Scholl, in second place and Middleburg High School, third place.
