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HARLINGEN — They call it the wild factor, but it could easily be called the “wow” factor.
“The wild factor of our team was a split and everyone kind of went nuts on that,” said Master Sgt. Devanny Tellez, a junior in the Harlingen High School JROTC Silver Guard Drill Team.
The team of 16 girls was named national champion May 7 at the National High School Drill Team Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The glow of jubilation showed clearly on the faces of the 16 students who’d impressed judges and other teams from throughout the country with their razor-sharp performance. More than 100 teams of about 2,000 students competed in the two-day event.
“It felt really good,” Tellez said with a broad smile as she reflected on that day.
“It felt like for us girls it was really important to bring that win because it was an all-girls team,” said Tellez, 17. “We just wanted to show everyone that we could do it. And yes, we won.”
The girls spent long grueling hours honing their performance, perfecting every movement to a precision unequaled by the other teams, and it paid off May 7.
“We practiced a lot here at school to get to that point,” said Lt. Col. Alexa Serna, a senior. “All our hard work and dedication that each and every one of us put towards this team definitely paid off.”
What was so good about the performance itself that most impressed the judges?
“I guess it was our execution of it, snapping with it as well, and just being sharp with it,” Serna said.
The sharpness and the snapping of the wild factor “the split” seemed to be on everyone’s mind. In the school hallway, photos of the team at competition cover a section of a wall. Among them, a photo of the 16 girls in track uniform in formation with one leg out and the other folded back, right hand at salute.
“Altogether it’s a big drop,” said Cadet Cheyanne Deadman, 15, a sophomore.
“Everybody had to go down right at the same time,” she said. “I’m in the front, and I can’t see the people behind me. So you have to trust your teammates and trust your other cadets so that we’re all going to go at the same time.”
Their instructor, Master Sgt. Tony Gonzales, commended the students.
“This win was the culmination of hard work, long hours, dedication and the determination to win,” he said. “It’s a great win not only for our JROTC program but for Harlingen High School.”
