The Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) is an elective program that teaches students citizenship, leadership and discipline at Fort Lauderdale High School. Recently the JROTC cadets were able to display the skills they developed throughout the first semester. 

The cadets were invited to perform at the Miami Dolphins Game at Hard Rock Stadium on November 28. The students performed as the Color Guard in front of a crowd of approximately 40,000 people. 

“The cool thing about this experience is that the crowd didn’t see them as cadets, they were seen as military”, said Chief Daniel Tyson. “The cadets were able to go into the locker rooms. They got to meet with players and even got some signed merchandise.” 

On Dec. 4, the cadets went to their first Orienteering meet of the season, held at Tree Tops Park. There were 23 students at the event, but only two had any prior experience at meets. Even with a team of fresh new faces and only a week to prepare for the event, the cadets managed to achieve third place overall, qualifying the Flying L’s for the state championships in February. 

Cadet Rachel Krassow placed first on the female yellow course, a novice classification. 

“This was my first competition, so I was nervous… when I realized I got a time under 30 minutes, I was surprised because others had times of about 40 minutes,” Krassow said. “[For states] I will be put on a harder course, green, so I will have to build up my stamina for that.”

Krassow felt a sense of pride at her accomplishment. ”I”m better at map reading than I thought I was.”

The team placed third on both the yellow and green course. Courses are ranked on difficulty based on color. Yellow is the beginner course, orange is the medium leveled course and green is the most difficult course. They have five teams hoping to make it to the top 100 of the nation.