They did it again.

For the fourth consecutive year, Green Run’s Navy Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (NJROTC) unit, comprised of students from Green Run High School (GRHS) and Green Run Collegiate (GRC), returned with a national trophy from NJROTC nationals.

This two-day event of academic, athletic and drill challenges features the best NJROTC units from each of the Navy’s 11 areas.

Led by retired Navy Cmdr. Curtis Brown and retired Marine Corps 1st Sgt. Felix Robles, Green Run’s unit brought home the first runner-up championship trophy, plus, six additional team trophies in the following categories: academics, armed exhibition, unarmed exhibition, unarmed basic drill, team curl-ups and team pushups.

Additionally, several cadets earned individual honors:

• In pushups, GRHS senior Adriel Guzman and GRHS sophomore Lorenzo Burns earned third and seventh places with 140 and 110 pushups, respectively.
• In curl-ups, Guzman took the second spot with 329, while GRHS senior Jakob Bradshaw and GRHS junior Adrian De La Riva both tied for sixth place with 320 curl-ups each.
• GRC senior Taylor Turbide earned third place in academics, which tests cadets’ knowledge of maritime history, leadership, nautical science, naval knowledge, naval skills, ships, ranks, current events and protocols.

“They worked extremely hard,” Brown stated. “Second, first, first and second places at nationals these past four years is unprecedented. They showed that a lot of hard work pays off.”

Brown also credited parents.

“Parents buy in with supporting their children – getting them to school at 5 a.m. for practice. We have parents helping us whose children graduated several years ago and they still help us. They believe in what we are doing and they are there to support us.”

The team works hard not in daily practices, but in the classroom since NJROTC is an elective offered at First Colonial, Green Run, Landstown, Princess Anne and Salem high schools as well as Green Run Collegiate.

“There’s people who think we are only about drills. We teach curriculum. We talk about world history, naval science, leadership – so these are regular classes that we are teaching. Students are studying academics and they have to learn material from four different textbooks,” Brown emphasized.

Green Run’s NJROTC has become a recognized powerhouse at not only nationals, but in the mid-Atlantic region, winning that NJROTC regional competition the past seven years. Winning Area Five earns them the right to compete at nationals.

NJROTC is offered nationwide at accredited secondary schools and is taught by retired Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel. According to NJROTC, the program’s mission is to instill in students the values of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment. For more information about the high school program, visit NJROTC’s website. For information about NJROTC Nationals, visit the event website.