THE OFFICIAL HOME OF
THE BULLDOG BATTALION
JROTC MAINSAIL Newsletter (December 2023)
This year the Bulldog Battalion has been on our A-game. The Bulldog Battalion has hosted many fun events for this year's cadets and there are many more on the way!
Since our last Mainsail, our Raider team competed in the County Raider Meet. They finished 1st overall. Go Raiders! They are led by our Battalion Commander Hayden Wilding.
Our Rifle team this year, under our Battalion S-2, Kaia Nelson, competed in several competitions. Most recent was the National Competition (CMP), where they competed against 800 other JROTC cadets. Their next competition is on Thursday, December 7 at Manatee High School.
Our JLAB team has also performed exceptionally well. This year’s JLAB team is being commanded by Larry Caceres. In JLAB, the JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl, cadets compete virtually, taking online tests which assess their knowledge of math, reading comprehension, grammar, leadership and many more. As of now we are still waiting to hear the result on the placement scores to see if we qualified for Level 2, but we are rooting for our Bulldogs.
This month is the beginning of the season for our drill team. The drill team is being commanded by our Battalion Executive Officer Renna Ramsaran and Battalion Command Sergeant Major Allan Bizarro. In Drill, cadets hone their marching skills in preparation for meets in January and February, competing against other school’s JROTC programs. The first drill meet of the season will be January 20th. The Drill team practices every Tuesday and Thursday to make sure we bring home a trophy this year.
It is not just our teams that have been making a splash. On Veterans Day, select cadets in the Battalion marched in the Veterans Day Parade down Main Street to honor the veterans within our community.
Finally, we have our annual Service-Learning Project coming up. This year we will be visiting the Brookdale Assisted Living Home. We will put on several demonstrations for the elderly, namely rope bridge and squad drill, and then hang out and play games with them. Our goal is to help the residents of Brookdale feel like they have someone there for them and do not feel forgotten.
Although we are only halfway done with the school year, this year’s Battalion has not even shown its full potential. See you next time. GO BULLDOGS!!!
C/CSM Allan Bizzaro
JROTC MAINSAIL Newsletter (August 2023)
Our Bulldogs have started another strong year! Cadets have started joining teams and have been getting involved in our battalion events. Classes have begun and everything is running smoothly. We have a lot of upcoming events in this exciting new year 2023-2024.
If you are unfamiliar with our program and what we do, the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) Program is dedicated to inspiring and promoting leadership, character and community service among its members. We do this by providing our students, or ‘cadets,’ with real hands-on leadership experience through the implementation of our student run program. Cadets are given responsibility for managing and leading one another in a variety of teams, classes and many other activities. There is zero obligation for cadets to join the military, and in fact the vast majority of those enrolled in JROTC do not elect to serve after high school.
Our Battalion is led by senior Lieutenant Colonel Hayden Wilding. He is a member of the AICE Program and is on the Raider Team in JROTC. So far, under his direction, the Battalion Staff have begun drafting several ideas for both the Continuous Improvement and Service-Learning Project. Each year the Bulldog Battalion decides on something in JROTC that we wish to ameliorate. Past Continuous Improvements have included better Physical Training, more promotions, and more consistent Uniform Wear. In addition, every year the Battalion completes a Service-Learning Project. As a program, we work together to accomplish a volunteer event in our community. These events are typically planned for months and require the full attention of several of the Battalion Staff to complete.
Overall, it is shaping up to be a great year for Sarasota High’s JROTC program. Let's go Bulldogs!
- C/2LT Kaia Nelson
JROTC Mainsail Newsletter (February 2023)
Since the last Mainsail, our Bulldog Battalion has done it all! From dances to competitions, inspections to physical training, we have had quite the few months.
Our JLAB (JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl) Teams competed in the Level 2 Test, with a chance to move on to nationals in Washington D.C this summer. Our Academic JLAB team achieved the highest score from our program in 3 years! Our Leadership JLAB team was excellent as well, attaining their top score this season.
Drill cadets were also exceptional in their performance at the University of Tampa Drill Meet! Our drill team continues to practice and hone their skills in preparation for their final meet on March 25th.
Our program has also participated in a myriad of fun social occasions. Our annual Bulldog Dining In, a formal event for the members of our Battalion, gave cadets a wonderful experience getting to know their fellow bulldogs while also having fun and eating great food!
February 25th was the Military Ball, in which cadets and their guests from JROTC programs across the county got together for a black-tie dinner and dance. After a night full of eating-and hours of dancing- cadets returned home with many new friends from other JROTC units, and, of course, a full belly.
Most importantly, our program recently conducted JPA, a yearly inspection of our program’s quality. We were judged on our marching skills, the exactness of our uniforms, our leadership knowledge and our community service. We are proud to say that we received an extremely high 98%, retaining our Honor Unit with Distinction designation (the highest possible), which we indicate proudly by wearing a gold star on our uniforms above our nametags.
In future mainsails, look out for updates on our upcoming Raider Spring Season, as well as our Battalion Drill Meet and TreeUmph Field Trip!
-C/MAJ Hayden Wilding