Photo By Crystal Housman | California Cadet Corps Cadet Kevin Gallegos, a seventh grader at Bunche Middle School...... read more read more
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JOINT FORCES TRAINING BASE, California — They climbed, they crawled and they cheered.
For ten hours, Oct. 28, 2017, cadets in the California National Guard’s California Cadet Corps youth program worked to solve physical and mental challenges during the corps’ second annual Xtreme Team Challenge, at Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, California.
289 cadet competitors from across the state split into teams of ten to tackle ten academic and athletic challenges in ten hours. About 50 additional cadets participated as event staff.
“It’s really an opportunity for them to have fun, be kinesthetic and do something, but also most importantly emphasize team-level leadership skills and problem solving,” said Lt. Col. Michael J. Smith, Assistant Executive Officer for the California Cadet Corps.
The events were created in collaboration between adult and cadet staff members, and were designed with a focus in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
The program aimed to transform strong individuals into strong teams.
“A lot of programs teach about individualism or teamwork, and our program strives to make sure people are strong as an individual to enhance the team within itself,” said Cadet Maj. Michelle Salazar, a high school senior who serves as the corps’ statewide cadet commander and also as its 11th Brigade Commander for San Bernardino City Unified School District.
Challenges required cadets to solve math puzzles, work their way across a slackline, communicate information across a field, and perform as a team during a life-sized game of human foosball, which required rows of cadets to communicate with each other in order to move side-to-side while holding onto a rope and chasing down a soccer ball or defending their goal.
Cadets from James Curran Middle School in Bakersfield found success as they carried sandbags on a litter and navigated it through an obstacle course.
“It was easy because we all worked as a team to get everything over and we succeeded,” said Cadet Cpl. Lily Robinson, an eighth grader and first year cadet at the school.
Not all of the challenges were that easy, she said.
“Some of the stuff I don’t think I can do, but some of the stuff I think, ‘yeah, I can totally do that,’” Robinson said.
Most of the events challenged cadets in the field, but Salazar’s favorite event challenged her cadets in the classroom.
“My favorite one is actually SySTEM Failure,” Salazar said.
“It’s a series of questions which begin slow and simple, and you don’t have very many outside contributing factors,” she described. “But, as you get further and further into the challenge sirens go off, fog gets released, the lights start turning on and off, music is playing, random sounds are in the background and it tries to challenge your mental focus.”
The SySTEM Failure experience might come in handy for the cadets, she said.
“If you were out in a real-life situation where you needed to stay focused like that, it could help enhance you,” Salazar said.
The challenges are tiring, but they create opportunities for the cadets to bond.
“We stress them this day, in terms of having back-to-back activities,” Smith said. “We keep them running those ten hours, so they’ll be tired but they’ll feel accomplished and have a sense of team connection and camaraderie.”
By the end of the day, the teams will beam with pride, particularly in those who earn awards in the competition, he said.
Cadets from the 309th Battalion at San Gorgonio Middle School in Beaumont, California, took top honors in the Beast division for seventh and eighth graders. Teams from California Military Institute (CMI) in Perris, California, and Charter School of San Diego, took second and third, respectively.
CMI’s 320th Battalion Plebe division team took first place among ninth and tenth graders, while cadets from Palm Desert High School, took second, and those from Pacific High School in San Bernardino took third.
The Warrior division title for high school juniors and seniors went to cadets from the 301st Battalion at Cajon High School in San Bernardino. Cadets from Oakland Military Institute in Oakland took second, and third place was earned by a hybrid team of cadets from San Bernardino’s Pacific and Victorville’s Victor Valley high schools.
The Cadet Corps holds six statewide events annually, and the Xtreme Team Challenge is unique among them, said Smith.
“As a standalone event, this is the only one that has this particular focus,” he said.
Though the program is new, it is off to a good start.
“It’s only our second annual, but its been received very positively by everyone,” Smith said.
The California Cadet Corps was founded in 1911 by the Adjutant General of the California National Guard and falls under the auspice of the National Guard’s youth program. About 7,000 students participate in the corps annually at 60 elementary, middle and high schools statewide.
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.09.2017 12:41 |
| Story ID: | 254808 |
| Location: | JOINT FORCES TRAINING BASE LOS ALAMITOS, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 208 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, California Cadet Corps Cadets take on Xtreme Team Challenge, by Crystal Housman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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