On Thursday October 26, Steinbrenner JROTC held their first Kick-tober festival after school on the softball field. In the spirit of Halloween being right around the corner each team came up with crafty costumes to dress up in. JROTC started this event to advertise their program and show that they are more than just military training.
Steven Notto (also known as Seargent Notto), and many other volunteers in the JROTC program came together to make this event as fun as possible not only for the players, but also for the spectators. “We are more than just the uniform. We have things like PT and other stuff, and we also have fun, and we wanted to share that fun with everyone else.” Said Notto.
Each team was representing a program at our school or was made up of a group of friends who wanted to participate in some competition. There was a total of 7 teams established, however, the “Astro Aliens” team did not show up which automatically gave the “DECA Destroyers” team a path straight into the semifinals. From the get-go each team came ready to play. The “Diversity Dawgs” started off by having a private strategy meeting and stretching on the field. There were also two teams made up of the boys wrestling team named “Wizards and Warlocks team A” and “Wizards and Warlocks team B”. They all dressed up with colorful face makeup and a fighting spirit using their team chant to enter the game.
In the final rounds of elimination, the “DECA destroyers”, representing Steinbrenner’s DECA sports marketing program faced the “Diversity Dawgs”, who dressed up in a batman theme and represented the Sout Asian Student Association.
When it came to student energy during this event, almost every team we spoke to was confidence in their abilities. AJ Hill, a competitor representing DECA, said, “We are here we are to dominate, not to play around.” On the other hand, some teams were just there to have some fun. Cooper Green, the Leader of the HOSA, Spider Man themed team said “I don’t know if we are going to win but at the end of the day it is nice to know we are raising money for Steinbrenner’s JROTC program and we are looking forward to having fun with the other clubs and having good sportsmanship.”
Towards the second half, all the other teams previously eliminated lined up by the fence of the softball field and cheered to support the other teams in the finals. In the end, the “DECA Destroyers” won first place in the bracket in the bracket against the “Diversity Dawgs”.
In addition to the friendly competition between kickball teams there was also a costume contest. After the winners of the game were given their medals, the JROTC volunteers revealed who won the best costume awards. The FFA team who came dressed up as different farming animals took first place for their attire. Most of the teams celebrated afterward by going to get food to wind down after the excitement.
