Astronaut War Eagle Drill Meet Performance Critiques

Astronaut High School’s Army JROTC hosted the 2015 War Eagle Drill Meet at their school in Titusville, FL on the 21st of February. I judged Unarmed Squad, used a new score sheet as a trial and recorded my usual commentary as the performances progressed.

These recordings are standard in pageantry arts with music and visual judges giving feedback. My recordings are the first of their kind for the Military Drill World.

The picture is of Merritt Island High School AJROTC with their trophies, including first place over all. I’m proud of my cadets! Actually, I’m proud of all of the teams that have taken their time to learn and then practice. It can be a tough road, but the journey is well worth the effort! It was great to see Palm Bay High School’s MCJROTC teams perform this morning and to judge alongside a Marine again.

I must apologize, my introduction to each of the teams sounds just fine, but after that, you cannot hear me. The commander’s voices are clear, I have no idea what went wrong. Again, I am very sorry that you won’t be able to download and listen to my critiques.

In any event, look at the new score sheet that you were given today. See how this begins to get the judges thinking of the performance as a whole and, most importantly, thinking in the positive: teams start with zero and build up based on their performance. The other sheet has you starting with a number (400-something) and taking points off each time a “mistake” is made. Negative scoring doesn’t allow anyone to learn.