East Aurora High School's Navy Junior ROTC unit finished first at the NJROTC Area 3 West Regional Academic, Athletic and Drill Competition hosted by Recruit Training Command (RTC), Feb. 24-25.

Located in Aurora, Illinois, the Tomcats beat 14 Midwest NJROTC units from Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska during the two-day competition and captured the regional title.

"I'm overwhelmed and at a loss for words," said Cadet Joaquin Miranda, a senior from East Aurora High School. "We were faced with a difficult challenge; we pushed forward and earned it this year. This was a reflection of how hard each team member worked throughout the year."

The competition included personnel inspections, color guard and drill competitions, athletic events, and academic testing.

More than 20 staff and recruit division commanders (RDC) from RTC volunteered their time to judge the competition. For the RDCs, judging these types of events provides additional opportunities to use their drill knowledge.

"This was a great event," said Capt. Michael Garrick, commanding officer of RTC. "It was fantastic to see so many young leaders come out and demonstrate what they have been working on so hard for. I also want to thank all of the instructors and RTC staff for their support this weekend."

"This was a fantastic competition and the cadets performed superbly," said retired Cmdr. Joe Hankins, NJROTC Area 3 manager. "RTC support was excellent, and I am really proud of the cadets."

Of the 15 schools participating in the Area 3 West Regional, the top five received trophies. Overall, after East Aurora, Harding High School from Saint Paul, Minnesota; Papillion-La Vista High School from Papillion, Nebraska; Wheeling High School from Wheeling, Illinois; and Freeport High School from Freeport, Illinois, rounded out the top five.

East Aurora will represent Area 3 at the NJROTC national competition in Pensacola, Florida, April 7-8.

NJROTC is a citizenship development program which instills in high school students the value of citizenship and service to the United States.

The NJROTC, or Citizenship Development, program is currently under the direction of Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans and his NSTC staff, headquartered onboard Naval Station Great Lakes.

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

The NSTC command oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy. This includes the Naval ROTC at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command (OTC) onboard Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp, at Great Lakes, as well as NJROTC.

For more information about NJROTC, visit http://www.njrotc.navy.mil/.

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

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit http://www.navy.mil/, http://www.navy.mil/local/greatlakes or http://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.