From First Sergeant, Jerry Queen:
The long-awaited Raider Nationals came to end today. After being postponed for six months, the Raiders finally got to compete. Even though it wasn’t the ending we wanted, the performance level these Raiders put out cannot go unnoticed.
The Male Team competing against 80 teams and the Mixed Team competing against 105 teams, both teams had the fastest time in the Rope Bridge Event winning first place. Amazing!
Raider Nationals is divided into three levels, the Masters, for the teams that want to compete at the highest level against the top competition; the Challenge Level, for teams that are new or teams that are good enough but just not willing to make the move to the big leagues; and the All-Service Level, mostly non-Army JROTC teams, but many are very good.
Although the Male Team finished tied for first in the master's level but finished second due to losing the tiebreaker, when all the levels and 80 teams were added together, the Male team would have finished first or second in all seven events and won overall.
The Mixed Team finished fourth overall in the master's level and finished top eight overall out of 105 teams.
Yes, these are only moral victories, but the effort, the heart, the determination, the limits they pushed, the teamwork they displayed is something you cannot understand unless you witness it.
I know teams that lose the Super Bowl don’t get much recognition, but these kids are incredible and they need to know what they have accomplished is extraordinary.