Community and Camaraderie: Watauga High School’s MCJROTC Raider Team

Oliver Owens (11) completes a pull-up during a WHS Raider team practice. Photo Credits: Grant Painter, Watauga Yearbook 

Ian Biles, Staff Writer for The Powderhorn

Finding a sense of community is an important part of the high school experience. At Watauga High School, programs like Mountain Alliance, sports teams, and a variety of clubs help students to find “their people.” For some members of the WHS Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps(MCJROTC), the community is found in the program’s Raider team. Raider is an extracurricular athletic team that competes against other Raider teams in the district. These competitions are team-focused and involve events such as obstacle courses and more general physical fitness tests. 

During competitions, the team is around 9 strong, not including alternates. However, the number of dedicated people who train with and support the team is much higher. Grace Young, one of the team's two captains, explains her role in these practices.

“Being a captain means my co-captain and I decide what we want to do each practice. We also make training plans, and organize equipment and the place we are going to practice,” said Young. “Another thing is just keeping the team informed on what we’re going to be doing each week and making sure that we’re  ready for competitions.”

Young, a junior, has been on the Raider team since her freshman year.  During interviews, each team member emphasized the importance of the team’s community.  For Young, she sees this community in every aspect of the team.

“For every event that we train for, we really rely on each other. Every member of the team is vital to our success,” said Young. “That allows us to become really close and have a lot of camaraderie, working together like that. 

The memories made with the team are an essential part of the team’s community. Oliver Owens, a junior who has also been on the team all 3 years, has many memories from his years competing and practicing with the team. Owens explained that his most loved memories came from bus rides with the team.

 “We usually bring a cramp simulator [on the bus].  That causes people to make some crazy faces, and that's always fun,” said Owens. “ People throwing jello at each other, dinners with the team at China Buffet, those kinds of things… those are my favorite memories.”

While the Raider team may function as one unit during competitions, there is also a heavy focus on individual growth and work within the team.  Unfortunately, because of the Raider team’s connection to the high School’s ROTC program, only students who have taken or are currently in an ROTC class can participate on the team. Regardless of this, Owen’s encourages anyone interested who meets these qualifications to come to some of the teams’s practices.

“If you aren’t very athletic, still come out, have some fun, and work to improve,” said Owens. “You don’t necessarily have to be focused on competing if you just want to work on yourself. It’s a great community.”