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Drill team prepares for upcoming competition
Photo Credit: Victoria Heath
Dillon Armistead instructs the drill team on how to march in step.
Written by Victoria Heath, Reporter
Standing in the hot sun, the drill team gets ready for their first practice for the 2009 MAHS Early Bird Drill Meet, which will be held on Sept. 19.
“I’m really excited about the competition,” Morgan Thomas, sophomore, said, “because we have new officers who are more serious and dedicated to the team.”
The competition will be held here in the gym. There will be up to 10 or more schools representing the Marines and Air Force that will join including this one.
The competition usually begins about eight in the morning and ends in the middle of the afternoon.
Since this school is hosting the competition, they will be providing the trophies and the awards, which were donated by the American Legion 10th District.
There are three teams categorized for the competition. They are the exhibition drill team, the unarmed drill team and the color guards.
The exhibition drill team competes using heavy rifles and performs complicated stunts.
The unarmed drill team competes without weapons, but instead performs a specific routine.
Last, but not least, there are the color guard, which present the flags on command, and who sometimes wear the Revolutionary uniforms, which is the only team in the United States to have Revolutionary uniforms custom made to wear. These uniforms are sometimes worn in the competitions.
The competition is very fast paced. “As soon as you get the schedule for the day,” Jenna Phillips, senior, said, “you have to get the teams ready in groups in which they’re competing.”
Some team members are categorized to compete in more than one event so the teams are always rushing.
“Sometimes as soon as you’re done competing,” Phillips said, “you might have like five minutes to get ready for the next competition.”
September 5th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
This is great. I support my boyfriend, Dillon Armistead, all the way.
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September 9th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I’m on the drill team and we practice every day we get better as we move along we have a drill meat coming up and I am nervous I wanted say that you should put more pictures of the drill team on there because most people don’t even know that there is a drill team.
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Morgan Thomas Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Ha. Don’t worry Michael. It’s okay to be nervous. I did the same thing last year as a freshman. It will be okay I promise.
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September 11th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
The Drill team is the a HUGE part of the ROTC and I take great pride in being a commander of the Lightweight Regulation Drill this year.
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