The UC High Marine Corps JROTC’s district-wide Academic Team Competition took place on Saturday, January 11, at Patrick Henry High, where the schools competed against each other in academic matches for placements and prizes.

  According to Junior Max Scott, this is just a friendly competition between all branches of JROTC in the San Diego Unified School District. 

   “The competitions and practices are like trivia games.There is a person/teacher who asks a question and the team members buzz in and answer the question. If they get it right, then the team gets 10 points. If they get it wrong, they get no points and the other teams have a chance to answer the question,” explained Freshman Cindy Ng.

   “I like the Academic Team in ROTC because it’s fun. You get to learn new things and you meet many people. We have a competition almost every month and we compete with two or three other schools, each time with a team of four,” continued Ng.

   “I am glad I joined the team, because I met so many new people and made many new friends. I’m  very glad that I got this experience,” Ng added.

   “The Academic Team is one of several teams that the UC MCJROTC offers. They compete in two different Leagues; the District League and the National League,” said Senior Dusty Carr.

   “They usually do pretty well at the District League, coming in at about fourth place. About four years ago, our team got to go compete in Washington D.C. at the national level, but it’s been a rough last couple years for the team,” Carr concluded.

   “The competition takes the top ten schools of the total twelve schools in our district. As of right now, we are sitting at fifth place, which is a solid 50 percent,” said Scott.

   We struggle with literature, but we have math, science, geography and American history in the bag. If we get lucky, we have a very good chance at taking first place,” added Scott. 

   “We compete to take first,” said Senior Jenny Lai. “We’ve always come close to taking first at the JROTC Academic Bowl, but never quite make it. Maybe this is our year,” continued Lai.