HARLINGEN – They spent hours and days and weeks and months marching and drilling and preparing for the day.
That day came last weekend when the Harlingen High School “Black Guard” JROTC Drill Team competed in the 2022 National High School Drill Team Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida.
And they won the nationals for their category.
“I’m very happy, very excited that we got to go Florida and get the experience, and yeah just get to compete and meet other people,” said Cadet Capt. Oscar Gutierrez, 18, a senior at HHS.
“It was lots of practice every day, mostly in the mornings and sometimes after school,” Gutierrez said. “Saturdays and Thursdays we’d be practicing no matter the weather, cold, hot, sometimes rainy days. Yeah, it took a lot of practice and sweat to be able to go.”
This was the first time in three years the HHS Drill Team has been able to compete outside the Valley. COVID put everything on hold, but that didn’t stop them from practicing. And in the midst of all this came in a fresh new face, that of Sergeant First Class Mario Gonzales.
“He came on board and brought a different type of training in here and the cadets chose to run with it,” said ROTC Instructor Juan Gonzales.
“That’s what got them over the top,” Juan Gonzales said. “They practiced every day, Thursday nights and Saturdays, about 30 hours a week.”
The event April 15 and 16 drew 82 drill teams from throughout the United States, and HHS was the only group representing the Valley.
“These are the best of the best that go there,” Juan Gonzales said. “The Army’s isn’t going to pay for schools that are not going to do well there or are not going to come back with something. They all know they are going there to win, to practice, not go to the beach or have fun or just go in there and wing it.”
A total of 35 cadets represented Harlingen High School, and one of them, Cadet Major Luis De Lara, 18, was exceedingly happy.
“I knew that our team had what it takes to go over there and perform well, all the practice and time we put into it,” he said.
There were some nervous moments at one point when there was a disruption in transportation, but the cadets handled it well. When they arrived in Florida, they quickly practiced again and made final preparations. De Lara credits some “last minute adjustments” for making HHS shine brighter than her fellow competitors.
“Maybe other schools and teams didn’t pay as much attention to that, and that’s what took us farther,” he said.
While De Lara and Gutierrez are seniors and will soon finish their high school ROTC careers, Cadet Master Sgt. Alexa Serna is a junior and looks forward to next year.
“I enjoyed the experience,” said Serna, 17. “This was my first time competing ever and especially as the commander it was a great experience and it taught me leadership skills.”
