Members of Aviano High School’s junior ROTC color guard compete during the All-European Drill Competition at SHAPE High School in Belgium earlier this month. Pictured, from left: Senior Bryan Beals, junior Kassandra Mangosing, sophomore Dominique Dacanay and senior Sean Daniel. (Scott Seibert / Courtesy of DOODS)
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — More determination. Better organization. Increased support. Luck.
These are some of the things members of Aviano High School’s Junior ROTC drill team attributed for their victory in the All-European Drill Competition at SHAPE High School in Belgium last Saturday.
It was the first time in the school’s history that the Aviano team, formed nine years ago, won the competition. In fact, it was the first time the team finished in the top three in the contest with other Department of Defense Dependents Schools.
“We were completely surprised,” 17-year-old junior Kassandra Mangosing, a lieutenant colonel in the program and the team’s only female gun twirler, said of the All-Europe win.
That goes for the drill team’s instructor, retired Senior Master Sgt. Scott Seibert, too.
“They said I actually jumped up” when Aviano was announced the winner, Seibert said. “You should have seen the looks on [the cadets’] faces.”
The team faces an uphill battle when competing with high schools from larger bases, such as Ramstein and Kaiserslautern in Germany, Seibert said. Ramstein, the largest of the high schools in Europe, has nearly 1,000 students to pick from when creating Junior ROTC teams, compared to just 270 in Aviano, according to Department of Defense enrollment figures.
“They compete against all the big schools, so winning is pretty darn good,” Aviano High School principal Doug McEnery said of the JROTC cadets.
So score one for the underdog.
“This year has been our big year,” said 18-year-old senior Sean Daniel, an airman on the armed exhibition team. “The last couple of years, we’ve been a joke to everybody.”
Ramstein placed second and Lakenheath third in the competition.
Senior Bryan Beals, 17, commander of the drill team, said everything fell into place for the team this year. Experienced members helped rookies learn fast; students got motivated to practice on a regular basis; the team created its first armed exhibition team; and sponsors such as the base thrift store came through with helpful donations, he said.
And luck played its part. The team was mistakenly invited to compete in the England competition last year and ended up winning it, Seibert said. So the Aviano team was invited back to defend its title this year and won it again — getting helpful competition experience along the way.
At the European competition, two of Aviano’s team members also placed in the top three from among more than 200 participants in the “drill down” competition. The junior cadets followed rapid-fire orders that increased in speed until the group was whittled to the one person who followed them closest.
Mangosing won and freshman Crystal De La Paz, 15, took third.
Mangosing, who was also named the overall top commander at the competition, said she likely will hang up her gun next year and step out of drill competition.
“It’s good to finish on top,” she said.
