Carson High School’s Marine Corps Junior ROTC program wins at competition

The Carson Complex Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program had their first competition of the semester at Desert Hot Springs high school on Saturday, Jan. 18.

The MCJROTC program have many teams that compete in these competitions such as Color Guard, armed and unarmed drill, female exhibition, and physical training teams. 

These teams competed against different high school that also are in the program but represent different branches in the Marine Corps, as well as others such as the Navy, Air-force and Army.

There is also a competition for the game the cadets played called “Tap Out,” which included doing stationary movements such as left face, right face, hand salute and more. The winner took a trophy home that was awarded after all the competitions were completed and before they gave out the rest of the awards. 

Students that are in the program attended to watch them compete and see what the teams are all about. Students were able to join and compete on multiple teams. 

There were two color guard teams, Team Alpha and Team Whiskey. Also, there were three unarmed female exhibition teams, one armed and one unarmed drill team, and one physical training team.

They won a total of four trophies. They received first place in all-male color guard. They also won the best commander cup from the same color guard team. 

The all-female unarmed exhibition won first and second place. The team that won first place competed for the first time. 

“It was surreal, it was the first competition that I’ve done we won,” said Carson High School freshman Leila Guino.    

The next competition will be on March 7 at Fontana High School. These teams plan to work hard and win more trophies.