Joliet Central and West Compete in Annual Intra-City Drill Meet

Photo Identification (Left to Right): Samantha Gonzalez, Lillian Luangsomkham, Paige Overcash, Lucas Schreiner

Joliet Central High School and Joliet West High School competed against each other in the annual Joliet Intra-City Drill Meet on Saturday, December 14, 2019 at Joliet Central High School. The Joliet Intra-city Drill Meet, which traces back to the 1990s, is a traditional competition between the Central and West JROTC drill & color guard teams.

The meet opened with an in-ranks inspection of cadets for both campuses where they are judged on their uniform appearance, grooming, and military knowledge. The competition continued with platoon groups of cadets from each campus marching in both armed and unarmed regulation drill and color guard categories. There is also a junior varsity drill category for first- and second-year students.

This year, each school performed freestyle exhibition drill routines. The meet then moved to what is called knockout, where cadets test their individual drill and ceremony proficiency responding to verbal commands. The last five cadets on the floor receive neck medallions. The meet concluded with an awards ceremony, followed by a pizza party for the cadets of both campuses in the atrium.

Central won the Unarmed Platoon Regulation Drill, Unarmed Color Guard, and Junior Varsity Unarmed Platoon Regulation Drill categories. They also captured all 3 of the traveling trophies: Best Color Guard, Best Drill Team, and Meet Championship Trophy. West won the Armed Platoon Regulation Drill and Armed Color Guard categories and made a clean sweep of all of the individual neck medallions for individual drill and ceremony proficiency in response to verbal commands.