‘ALMOST A MOVIE MOMENT’
SFHS Naval Junior ROTC squad takes 2016 state championship
The tension was nearly unbearable for the members of the Santa Fe High School Naval Junior ROTC program last weekend.
The four finalists for state champion were called up on stage and announced in reverse order.
Fourth-place La Cueva, then third-place Rio Rancho were announced and left the stage, leaving just Cibola and the Demons.
“At this point, we were kind of in a very hazy, dream-like state,” said Lt. Cmdr. Alex Russell, a senior and squadron leader. “All of us seniors, we’re standing in line, holding hands with our heads down, waiting for them to announce second.” And waiting. And waiting. “It felt like it took forever,” she said. “Then the announcer said, ‘Second place,’ and he held the ‘C’ in Cibola a really long time.”
Granted that was likely only a few seconds at most, admitted fellow senior and executive officer, cadet Lt. Isaac Moya.
“The ‘C’ in Cibola sounded like it took forever,” he said. “It was an awesome moment. Then he said, ‘2016 Junior ROTC state champions, Santa Fe.’ After that, we started crying and hugging each other. We ended up in a circle, waiting for our names to be called.”
For the seniors, the win was the culmination of four years of hard work as the unit finished second in 2014 and third last year.
“We went all out,” Moya said. “It was amazing.”
Indeed, the 26-person squad practiced during zero hour at 6:45 a.m., then added another hour during first period and did a couple more hours after school, Russell said,
“It was definitely a lot of work that we put in,” she said. “When we got there, we felt as prepared as possible.”
And then came that wondrous moment when they found out they were state champs.
“All of us seniors, we were in shock,” Russell said. “I went to my knees and I was crying for a while. All of us seniors, we were crying, we were so happy. It was almost a movie moment.”
The competition involved marksmanship, rifle drills, rhythm drills, marching drills, color guard and inspection.
Drill team rifle team members put in even more time at lunch working on their moves, Moya said.
“Even after four years, you can still learn different spins,” he said. “You learn different positions of the rifle to throw it higher, faster. Every one of the armed members put in lunch hours, practicing a spin. We’d get it done then so that, when it came to practice, all we had to do was do the runthroughs.”
This school year, the team was not going to settle for anything less than first, said Russell, who also plays softball.
“At the beginning of each year, our goal was to beat Cibola and take first place in state,” said Russell, who plans to attend the University of New Mexico before advancing to the FBI training academy in Quantico. “We went there more determined than ever to win. We had more of a fire in our unit.”
And since the state competition was at Cibola and the Cougars had been a particular nemesis for Santa Fe of late, that is on whom the Demons set their sights.
“We’ve been kind of following Cibola,” she said. “We’ve always been butting heads with them. We knew that they were hosting and they were our main competition.”
Winning it was a moment he will never forget, said Moya, who plans to join the U.S. Marine Corps on graduation.
“It meant a lot,” he said. “It finally showed how much that work paid off.”
And now he’s interested in giving something back.
“Enlisting for me isn’t about leadership or getting paid,” Moya said. “It’s about returning the greatness that this country has given to me.”