Central’s colors are Columbia blue, navy, yellow, and white. The only sports team that doesn’t distinctly wear our colors is the Raider team. Their uniforms are camo: army green and earth brown.
Anyone who isn’t military-affiliated or in the JROTC program probably doesn’t know what the Raider team is, what they do, what they practice for, and how they practice.
What is Raiders? “Raiders is a team that competes by running through obstacle courses and other physical challenges in which you learn leadership and teamwork,” Colonel Anders, JROTC instructor and Raider team coach, described.
“Raiders is not your typical fall sport: it’s bizarre to people who aren’t in the program or have military-based knowledge,” senior Mia Washington said. “Raiders is very physically demanding: obstacle courses, tire flips, relays, running. You’re working your entire body, but it’s so rewarding.”
“It’s fun and you make good memories: even in the most painful moments, even though it was stressful and when you feel like you’re about to pass out, you have your friend along next to you,” sophomore Kyleigh Rogers explained.
Being a Raider means that: you “have a lot of responsibility because it doesn’t just affect me, it lets down people on my team, and that’s the last thing you want to do,” Washington said.
“Raiders is more of a team-oriented sport, ” sophomore Maddison Bates said.
To them, Raiders is more than a team.
“I am very proud of this team and to be on this team, despite our faults, we’re all a big family”, senior Mia Washington said.
To be part of the Raider team means having “lots of discipline,” junior Cooper Lewis said.
“Raiders has helped me have more self-discipline to push through it all and to be a part of something bigger than what it seems like it is”, said sophomore Kyleigh Rogers.
This year, the team is proving to be bigger than it seems and more than just what defines them. The team is proving this through leadership, dedication, discipline, strength, teamwork, and one more component: change.
For the first time, Central now has an all-female Raider team. This makes our team unique because the team is one of the only three female Raider teams in our area; the other two are North Hardin and Reed County’s teams. “It’s not very widespread, at least at competitions we go to, but I’m hoping that continues to grow,” Colonel Anders stated.
Teams like Logan County and Barren County can only have mixed teams, with both males and females. So at local competitions, Central’s raider team can’t always compete in a female division.
“I hope more competitions have female divisions, so that our girls can get a chance to compete more,” Washington said. The reason why there aren’t many female Raider teams: lack of participation.
“I think some girls put in their mindset that they can’t do it, even though they can, and so that pushes them to not do it and or not try. I definitely think that if a girl puts their mind to it and they have the right motivation, they can. But if they think they can’t, then they’re going to be in that mindset before they even step into practice,” Rogers.
Anders agrees with Rogers, adding that: “By having an all-ladies team, it helps increase their confidence in their own ability to do things, so that when we compete with mixed teams, they bring that confidence and hopefully compete even better than what we’ve done in the past. I feel like sometimes on a mixed team, because the minimum of females required is just two on a team of 10 in national competition, I get a sense that they feel that they don’t belong, maybe, or that they aren’t as strong and fast as the guys, which isn’t always true but it makes them less confident.”
“My hope is to sharpen both male teams and female teams by bringing more ladies onto the team. I think these ladies, they’re sharp and they’re strong and they’re fast, but they don’t always have the confidence,” Anders said.
“It might be that because they’re not aware of the Raiders, they don’t really know what it’s all about. And if they do, maybe it’s intimidating because they think they can’t do it.” He hopes that even more ladies will join the program in the future next year, so the number of girls is equal to the boys,” he added.
What is it like having a female team for the girls on the team?
For returning sophomore Kyleigh Rogers: ”It’s different. As we’ve shown, we can definitely do it by ourselves. I think it’s a really good way to prove that girls can do it too, alongside boys. It shows that we can do it and empowers us to be able to push through stuff just because it’s hard.”
“It’s a great feeling to be on the ladies team, there’s a lot of support that everybody gives and receives from each other: compliments, support, and reassurance, even when we’re not doing our best, we still get all of that,” newcomer sophomore Maddison Bates expressed.
Rogers describes the support system as:“If one goes down, then we all go down with each other, and we have a trust system based on teamwork. We push each other, and we support and fall on each other.”
How does the female team impact the whole team at practice and at competition?
“I think that it impacts our program through the camaraderie and the competitive rivalry that comes along with it. Whenever the ladies do something well in one area, that challenges the young men’s team to do just as good. They challenge each other,” according to Anders.
Every year, the team competes at the national level. This time, the competition will be different.
“Last year we went to Nationals, and I saw all these ladies’ teams competing there. I thought we needed to represent Central like that: we have talented ladies who have the potential to do well in Raiders, and I thought that we needed to get more ladies involved and put them at the national level to compete. That’s my goal,” Anders said. With that in mind, the female team is working to compete and win at Nationals.
Every conditioning session, every morning practice, and every competition leads up to nationals. All the team’s work and experience accumulate to compete at Nationals. This season, the team is more optimistic and has more ambition, initiative, and leadership than before, with the addition of members. The female team is setting goals as competing at Nationals comes closer; the main goal: to win.
“I really hope that our female team gets a chance at Nationals. I really hope they do, because that’d be a great starting point and get us familiar with the competition, so that they can be prepared for next year in the years to come. I hope we place at least top five or top 10 at Nationals,” Washington said.
Besides competition in an all-female division, the female team is also key to the team’s success in mixed teams.
“The real value is, whenever we have a mixed team, these girls have already got the knowledge, and we’re able to pick and choose which techniques, and when we combine the teams and they bring that, their talents and strengths together, that confidence with them, and they all gain experience,” Anders explained.
The value also is at practice: “I think it’s had a positive impact when we see both teams practicing on their own, you see each team’s strengths and weaknesses. Some of the things that the ladies’ team is doing, we’re sharing with the guys’ team. We’re just sharing techniques,” Colonel Anders said.
You might have seen the Raider team running on the track, heard them singing an army cadence, seen them practice rope bridge, or use the obstacle course, but that’s only a glimpse of what a Raider does.
What more does a Raider do?
“For about three weeks in July, we will do conditioning: Monday through Friday, two hours a day. And then once school starts, it is Tuesday through Friday from seven to eight before school starts, and that first month, the month of August, is mostly physical fitness. It’s also training on rope bridges, where each person has their own role and responsibility, they have to do it well and work together to get it done as fast as possible, and to be competitive,” Anders said.
Along with summer conditioning, the team’s morning practices are when the team mainly prepares for competitions. In a sport like the Raiders, preparation is important. Every day, morning practice starts with: “a morning prep drill. There are 10 of them, and then maybe we’re gonna do cardio, we’re gonna run the track, and carry some equipment, like litters and water cans, maybe some ammo cans. Or we’ll run across this obstacle course you see out here in the mornings. The poles are for rope bridges,” Washington said.
As of Oct. 9, JROTC Raider Nationals has been postponed. This gives our female team more time to prepare to compete at the national level. We know the entire team will use their skills to win and make Central proud. Go Bruins!
