Guns hit the floor with a thud as a man yells at the group of thirteen teenage boys. They stand straight-faced looking at the man with concentration in this intense moment. This is a normal drill practice for the JROTC exhibition team.
Senior Devon Coleman has been a part of Legacy’s JROTC for two and a half years. He started his freshman year with no real extracurricular activities and no clue with what he wanted to do with his life.
“I was just a punk kid before [ joining JROTC ],” Coleman said. “I had nothing I really found important. I didn’t have a drive. I didn’t have a future.”
He joined mid-freshman year when a recruiter came into his class talking about JROTC and the military, asking anybody who was interested in considering joining.
“I felt like joining was my only option if I wanted to better my life,” Coleman said. “If I wanted a good career the military was my best bet.”
After joining his instructor, Sergeant Major Eric Smith actively tried to persuade Coleman into joining either their drill or color guard team.
“I really didn’t want to join at first. I didn’t see a real point in it,” Coleman said. “I saw it as just a bunch of guys throwing rifles around.”
Into his sophomore year, Coleman finally agreed to go to the drill practices every Tuesday and Wednesday. After a few weeks of this, he decided he would officially join the team.
“My perspective really changed. It was no longer pointless to me,” Coleman said. “At the end of the day, it really is mostly about the camaraderie that makes me love doing it.”
He continued on with the team and even joined their exhibition team his junior year. They went to U.S. Army nationals in Kentucky to compete for the first time his sophomore year and again his junior year.
“Our practices are extremely intense,” Coleman said. “In the end, they have all really paid off.”
Their first year they received second place overall at their brigade while competing with five other states. They then went on to place fifth overall at nationals.
“It was an emotional day for us all,” Coleman said. “It felt like all of those long hours of practice had finally got us somewhere.”
Since then the team has been working even harder to try to get better so that they can get first overall at nationals this year.
“It really does suck that this is my last year,” Coleman said. “I’ve had some amazing experiences with even more amazing guys. I hope that even after this year we will all still be friends.”
