Taking Victory for a Spin
Bailey Rodriguez, Adjunct Writer
February 24, 2026
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The Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) is a program for high school students that allows them to develop vital leadership, citizenship, and maritime service skills. This program is taught by those that have served in the United States’ military and provides a military type approach to teaching.
Many students join NJROTC in hopes of gaining skills useful for their future careers, to spend time with friends, or simply to gain a PE credit.
Reese Kass watching as teammates Rory price and Luis Maleoun fight Carrol for the ball. Photo by: Ian Palm
“I wanted to join [NJROTC] because I heard that it was a great program to join, to experience the chance of being in leadership or holding that position. I'm so glad it is. So that's really what initially made me join NJROTC. I also made some really close friends who I found out were in NJROTC, and they told me that it would be a great experience, and they just really recommended it,” said Cadet Jaxson Gruber, a junior at Flour Bluff High School.
However, NJROTC is not just a class, it is an extracurricular that takes part in many competitions.
Saturday, Feb. 25, 2026, Flour Bluff High School held the Area 18 NJROTC State Competition. This is the first time ever that the state competition has been held at a high school rather than at Texas A&M University in College Station. Many NJROTC students and competitors had varying reactions to the location of this competition.
“My initial reaction was not very good because I love traveling with NJROTC. I love doing those things. And [the competition] just being held here was just like demotivation for most of us,” said Franco
On the other hand, other students were ecstatic about the decision.
“Initially, I was surprised and I was quite honored to know that my school was going to host the state competition,” said Gruber.
Not only did the location of the competition change, but events and breaks in between events also altered.
“One big difference was that all the events were right next to each other. There was no downtime in between. There was no time to reset your brain for the next event,” said Franco.
Yet, the Flour Bluff NJROTC team did not let this sudden change of events get in the way of preparing for or competing at the state competition.
“We prepared for this competition like you'd prepare for any other sport, just repetitive motions. You just do it over and over and over again until it becomes a habit,” said Franco.
The Seahawks and Sea Devils competed in the scorching sun in several events such as: academics, physical training, armed drill, unarmed drill, and color guard. After around 12 hours of doing push ups, testing, and marching, it was finally announced in Flour Bluff High School’s auditorium that Flour Bluff they had come in first place overall!
Aransas Pass cadets and instructors arrive to assist in the Physical Training portion of the competition. Photo by: Audreana Underbrink
“We were ecstatic. We were happy. We were happy that we were carrying on the tradition of 27 straight state wins in a row,” Franco said when asked how he felt when their win was announced.
Overall, NJROTC is just one of the amazing programs Flour Bluff offers. The Seahawks and Sea Devils are both very hardworking, determined, and promising teams. I cannot wait to see how well they compete at the national level this May!
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