There is a lot of I in GRIT

Ooltewah High School JROTC participation in the Mid-State Commando Raider Competition

You have heard there is no “me” in team, referring to the fact that an effective teamis a cohesive group and not a collection of individuals, but I submit that a really effective team is acohesive group of “gritty” individuals. GRIT, as the psychologist and former teacher AngelaDuckworth describes, is a combination of passion and perseverance. She has studied this conceptextensively and believes GRIT is what makes people successful. One of the consistent traits of“gritty” people is participation in sports or other teams, especially for two years or more, so it islogical and cyclical that people become gritty participating in teams and teams do better because ofgritty people. I had the privilege to experience true and raw GRIT this past weekend at the Mid-State Commando Raider Competition.

Raider teams from all over the Southeast, consisting of ten member all-male, all-female or

coed members, camped in tents from Friday night until Sunday morning at the Boxwell Boy Scout

facility in Lebanon, TN. The competition consisted of six events which tested the physical and

mental fortitude of every participant while at the same time testing the cohesion and synergy of the

teams. The Ooltewah High School JROTC Raider team, coached by 1SG Mike McCullough, entered

one all-male team and one coed team. This is the first year Ooltewah High School has ever had a

coed Raider team compete outside of county competitions. I attended the competition as a parent

of one of the all-male team members and was able to run along and take photos of both teams

throughout the day. Many other parents also drove the two and half hours each way to watch and

take photos of the events. One student’s mother exclaimed “I got to watch some very strong,

determined and quite amazing kids work together as a TEAM!”Both teams consisted of Raiders and Raiders in training from 9th grade to 12th grade. Withvery different strengths and weaknesses, the only way for a team to really succeed was to recognizethese differences and work with them. The coed team, by virtue of their composition, had an evengreater dichotomy of capabilities and therefore, a greater need for teamwork. This manifesteditself most evidently during two of the last three events when the nearly exhausted teams wererequired to run for two miles on a road course and then later had to run 1.3 miles through thewoods each carrying a 35lb backpack. As I ran along these high school students I saw the verydefinition of GRIT. I saw passion like I have never seen it before. These kids love being Raiders and

love competing for themselves but even more for each other and for the whole Raider team. Iknow they were all thinking about making their parents and 1SG McCullough proud. Like passion,the word perseverance is just a word until you see it in action. I literally saw blood, sweat and tearpouring from these teenagers. During the 2 mile road run the students would hold hands and assisteach other. When the pain for a couple runners started to seem unbearable a conversation aboutfood would distract and then somehow encourage them all to push on. During the 1.3 mile trail runwith 35lb backpacks Raiders would take the packs from others to offer a quick respite in order tokeep the pace. The motivation from the front and the encouragement throughout the team wasceaseless. Even as the last Ooltewah team crossed the final finish line of the day, theencouragement and passion radiated from every Raider.By the end of the weekend the GRIT of the first ever Ooltewah coed team persevered andtook 2ndplace overall! Ooltewah’s all-male team also did exceptionally well and took home 7th place overall. Each and every member of the Ooltewah Raider team is unique and they are all ontheir way to becoming very gritty. Together they make up a TEAM spelled with GRIT.