Green Run High School from Virginia Beach, Virginia, registered their second straight national title as they won the 2018 Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) National Academic, Athletic and Drill Championship onboard Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, April 6-7.

The 25 NJROTC units, representing 14 states from coast-to-coast, were challenged on their athleticism, tested in academics and evaluated on the drill deck during the competition held at the Naval Air Technical Training Center's (NATTC) Chevalier Hall.

"The NJROTC National competition is a comprehensive test of overall NJROTC training and performance in existence today," said Mark Watson, deputy director for the NJROTC program. "This year, 25 of the nation's finest NJROTC units from across the United States were part of this exciting two-day competition. It was great to see the caliber of units that participated in the competition."

An awards ceremony was held at the National Museum of Naval Aviation after the competition was finished with participation certificates going to all 25 schools as well as trophies for each category including overall trophies to the top five units.

"I am so overwhelmed with joy and proud of our team," said Cadet Cmdr. Gerard Tenorio, a senior at Green Run High School. "My team worked very hard and dedicated a lot of time towards returning as champion."

This year the unit piled up 5,545 points to capture the title. Paloma Valley (California) High School came in second with 5,447 points. Centennial High School, Las Vegas, Nevada finished third with 5,312 points. Gaither High School, Tampa, Florida was fourth with 5,267 points and Troy High School, Fullerton, California rounded out the Top Five with 5,239 points.

On winning the championship for the second year in a row, "It is unbelievable," said retired Navy Cmdr. Curtis Brown, senior naval science instructor at Green Run High School. "The kids worked extremely hard and overcame much adversity. We didn't have the most talent this year, leaving some cadets at home, but had the best team with us and that's what it takes."

The personnel inspections, color guard and the drill events at the competition were judged by Navy Recruit Division Commanders (RDC's) and Marine Corps drill instructors (DI's) from Officer Training Command (OTCN), Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island.

In addition, Marines from Marine Aviation Training Support Group-21 assisted in judging the armed rifle exhibition, while Sailors from the Navy Recruiting Orientation Unit at NAS Pensacola judged the curl-up and push-up portions of the competition.

Approximately 26 of 583 NJROTC units worldwide qualify for the national competition annually.

Other NJROTC units participating in this year's Nationals included: Nease (Ponte Vedra, Florida); Escambia (Pensacola, Florida) High School; Pace (Florida) High School; Shawnee Mission North (Overland Park, Kansas) High School; Boca Raton (Florida) High School; Norview (Norfolk, Virginia) High School; Colts Neck (New Jersey) High School; Gaither (Tampa, Florida) High School; George Bush (Richmond, Texas) High School; Northmont (Clayton, Ohio) High School; Osbourn Park (Manassas, Virginia) Senior High School; Zion-Benton (Zion, Illinois) High School; Southest Guilford (Greensboro, North Carolina) High School; Pisgah (Canton, North Carolina) High School; Southwest (San Antonio, Texas); Willard (Missouri) High School; Floyd Central (Floyds Knobs, Indiana) High School; North Cobb (Kennesaw, Georgia) High School; Notre Dame (Utica, New York) High School; Atlantic City (New Jersey) High School; Spoto (Riverview, Florida) High School.


NJROTC is a citizenship development program that instills in high school students and in U.S. secondary educational institutions the value of citizenship and service to the United States.

In addition to regular classroom instruction, NJROTC cadets participate in a number of extra-curricular activities throughout the school year and during the summer months that are designed to stimulate learning by hands-on experiences and to reinforce the program's curriculum. Cadet extra-curricular activities include community service projects, drill competitions, academic competitions, visits to naval installations, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) training.

The NJROTC program is currently under the direction Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) staff, headquartered onboard Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.

NSTC supports 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy. This includes the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command (OTCN) on Naval Station Newport, R.I., Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp, at Great Lakes, Ill., as well as NJROTC.

For more information about NJROTC, visit http://www.njrotc.navy.mil/.
For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at http://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.