Group photo of drill team competitors. Photo by Juan Orazco

By Juan Orozco

The PHS Drill Team is a special unit, a team that is within the NJROTC program, who dedicate themselves to competing in dedicated drill meets. “The NJROTC Drill Teams are comprised of the elite cadets in the NJROTC Program. These cadets are taught to be competitive, yet supportive of each other and continuously motivate each other. They pay attention to the details of marching in step while maintaining military bearing,” Senior Chief McMasters, leader of the Drill Team and the NJROTC program.

It is also student run by, Captain Jessie Pimintel, Commander Ariel Aguilar and Lieutenant Commander Guadalupe Guerrero. This team is made up of about 80 cadets. The Drill Team competes in competitions in our locally, in-state, and a few out of state competitions.

The two competitions that we’ve competed in and they are the Bethel Drill Meet and Manchester Drill Meet. In these two competitions, PHS placed in Color Guard and New Cadet.

The Drill Team practices every day at 7 a.m. The commander for Unarmed is Jessie Pimintel. Unarmed means that cadets learn how to march without rifles. The Commander for Unarmed Color Guard is Jocelin Carpinteyro.

“[Unarmed Color Guard is] made up of four cadets, two rifles and two flags. So far, we’ve placed second place in the Manchester Drill meet. Even though we made mistakes we kept our bearing and we showed our positivity,” said Carpinteyro.

The commander for New Cadet Color Guard is Yeardley Urena and she said, “I’m having a good experience with it because the person who teaches me does a good job.” She is also a New Cadet.

The Commander for Unarmed Exhibition is Dairy Moya. Exhibition is special moves that go beyond the basic marching movements. It is a lot more complicated and challenging. It is challenging because they have to be able to multi-task various movements and they also have to do all the moves at the same time.

Drill teams practice for competition every day before school starts. Photo by Juan Orazco

The Commander for Unarmed New Cadet is Benjamin Bonilla. New Cadet is just what people might think; they are the newest cadets that joined this year. They learn all the basic command and the unarmed commander chooses the New Cadet Commander. New Cadet Drill is new every year, so every year is an entirely new team. Benjamin said of the new experience, “Drill Team is fun and you get to learn new things. We meet new people and work together to compete. I like it and I don’t regret joining it.”

The commander for Armed is Guadalupe Guerrero. The armed team is very similar to the unarmed team. The only difference is that they utilize rifles. They learn more things because their rifles have to be a certain way but everything else is the same thing.

The commander for Armed Exhibition is William Salas. This team also deals with rifles. In armed exhibition they learn special moves using rifles. They learn how to spin rifles and flip rifles, throw and catch rifles, and it takes a lot of practice to get it right. Sometimes it’s complicated and it takes a lot of practice to ensure that everything they are doing is not only correct, but looks good. “We continue to practice even though it tough,” said William Salas. It is that continual practice that makes the Drill Team so good.