Zion-Benton Township High School's Navy Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NJROTC) unit finished first at the 2016 NJROTC Area 3 West Regional Academic, Athletic and Drill Competition at Recruit Training Command (RTC) in Great Lakes, Mar. 5.

Known as the "Zee-Bees," the northern Illinois high school from Zion, Illinois, now has one more regional championship than the Chicago Bulls.

They competed against 14 Midwest NJROTC units during the competition, capturing the regional title for a seventh straight year.

More than 500 cadets from 15 Navy Junior ROTC units, 14 units in and around Chicago and one unit (Harding) from St. Paul, Minnesota, participated in the two-day event hosted by Naval Service Training Command (NSTC). East Aurora (Illinois) High School was the runner up followed by Harding High School, Wheeling (Illinois) High School and Freeport (Illinois) High School finished out the top five (overall trophies were handed out to the top five units).

"It feels amazing," said Cadet Capt. Jewel Nelson, 18, and a senior at Zion-Benton. "I couldn't be any prouder of this team. They put in all the work, all the time, all the effort and you couldn't expect any more from them."

Each event (8) in the regional completion was worth points. For example, the academic testing was worth a total of 1,000 points for each participating unit. Zion-Benton racked up 1,000 points to East Aurora's 839.86 points. Each drill event (Color Guard, Unarmed Basic, Unarmed Exhibition, Armed Basic, and Armed Exhibition) was worth 400 points. The personnel inspection was worth 1,500 points and the physical fitness testing (curl ups, pushups and shuttle run relay) was worth 750 points.

It was one of the closest competitions in the past several years with 48.18 separating Zion-Benton (5,007.65) and East Aurora (4,958.47). Harding collected 4,517.39 points, Wheeling piled up 4,387.95 points and Freeport finished with 4,253.55 points.

The NJROTC, or Citizen Development, program is currently under the direction of Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, NSTC commander, who is also headquartered on Naval Station Great Lakes. NSTC's Command Master Chief Matt Laing and RTC's Command Master Chief Shawn Isbell were on hand representing their respective commands. Each senior enlisted leader also helped pass out trophies and medals after the competition was over.

"This competition is important for citizen development," said Laing. "Most of these students are never going to join the military but (being part of NJROTC) it's an important part to get them to become responsible citizens after they graduate from high school."

Isbell called the two-day event incredible.

"What was put together isn't just important for the students, its important (for each unit and school) community," he said. "What each of these young people are being taught they're going to be able to use whether they join the military or not."

Both command master chiefs said having the competition at RTC provided huge benefits to the units.

"It's a big part of community outreach as well as a great first exposure to the military for the students," Isbell said. "They get to see what we do here at the Navy's only boot camp and we get to see what they are teaching them in high school."

Laing said having the regional tournament at RTC for the past 13 years important because they set a standard for the Navy.

"RTC staff members are a great role model for the students," Laing said.

The entire competition was held on the RTC campus grounds. Academic testing was held in a classroom of the USS Hopper ship barracks and the athletic and drill competition was held in the Pacific Fleet Drill Hall, the same drill hall recruits use to practice for graduation at the Navy's only boot camp.

"To see the cadets here at RTC, how well they perform and how hard they have worked to get to this position has been fantastic," said Cmdr. Joe Hankins, Area 3 manager. "I can't say enough about the support from RTC, from the judges to the use of the different facilities on the base. All around it's been a great couple of days."

For the returning champion "Zee-Bees", the continuous working as a team was constantly talked about and a big reason why Zion could squeeze out enough points to win. The unit racked up two first place wins, five second showings and two third place finishes.

Retired Master Chief Dan Hackstein, the senior enlisted Naval Science Instructor (NSI) who helped coordinate the competition with staff and cadets from the Zee-Bee unit, said he and the unit felt extremely good winning their seventh straight title.

"Pretty unbelievable but there was a lot of hard work and dedication from all the cadets," he said. "As always thanks go out to RTC. To have a competition like this at the "Quarterdeck of the Navy" there is no better place and we thank them for hosting us once again."

More than 25 RTC staff and recruit division commanders (RDCs) volunteered their time to judge the weekend event. For the RDCs, being a judge provides additional opportunities to use their drill knowledge and to mentor and mold future citizens.

"For us to be here on a Saturday and pay it forward to all these cadets is awesome," said RDC and judge Chief Logistics Specialist Natalie Philip. "It's really inspiring to see these cadets doing this a striving so hard for success."

The other participating units included: Bloom Township (Chicago Heights, Illinois) High School; Bloom Trail (Chicago Heights) High School; George Henry Corliss (Chicago) High School; North Chicago High School; Proviso East (Maywood, Illinois) High School; Proviso West (Hillside, Illinois) High School; Harold L. Richards (Oak Lawn, Illinois) High School; Hyman G. Rickover (Chicago) Naval Academy; William Howard Taft (Chicago) High School; and George Westinghouse College Prep (Chicago) High School.

Zion-Benton Township High School was scheduled to travel and compete in the 2016 Navy JROTC Academic, Athletic and Drill Championship on board Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, April 1-2.

The NJROTC and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NNDCC) programs seek to instill in participating high school students the values of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment. The NJROTC and NNDCC programs strive to build a strong foundation of citizenship within America's future leaders.

Currently NJROTC and NNDCC units are operating at more than 600 high schools around the world with more than 90,000 cadets participating.

In addition to regular classroom instruction, NJROTC and NNDCC 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.

Evans and his NSTC staff oversee 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy. This includes the NROTC at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command (OTC) on Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp, at Great Lakes, as well as NJROTC/NNDCC.

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

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

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