On April 1 a handful of Powell High School students spent a morning playing volleyball, eating cake and bonding as a Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps club. Powell High approved the JROTC club, the first in recent memory, in December 2023. Since then the students have been meeting every Wednesday. One day they hope to become an official program but right now they are laying the foundation for future members.

“If we can get this to a point that we have at least 10% of the population, the school population in the ROTC, we can actually apply to have an actual ROTC class or be an official ROTC, which would be a great thing for a lot of young kids because it teaches them good character building and leadership skills,” said Tim Heine, the club’s adviser and American Legion Post 26 commander.

In the short term he hopes to see a stable JROTC club that could begin to focus more on leadership competitions and drill and ceremony. Eventually they could travel to drill and ceremony competitions to see what JROTC looks like in schools and colleges.

Powell High senior Abigail LeBlanc is the group’s cadet commander, and the student responsible for getting the ball rolling on a JROTC in Powell. Former PHS student Trey Peterson and senior Isabella Gomez helped LeBlanc get the ball rolling.

When she first moved to Powell it was clear that the students “had their own little group that they clicked with and that was the only group they really socialized with,” LeBlanc said in an earlier interview.

She is taking her skills in the club to the next level after graduation as she’ll be attending the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

At her former high school, a career and technical academy in Nevada, the JROTC program created some sense of unity.

“I feel like if we have that group of people who have the same drive and the same motivation, and possibly even the same goals, that we’re all going to be able to relate a little bit better and kind of provide a sanctuary,” LeBlanc said.

The sense of community and unity is exactly what got Troy Cheatham interested in joining the JROTC club. Initially he was forced into joining, he joked, but he stayed because he found it to be fun.

“It’s nice to be able to come and go somewhere and have a whole bunch of friends that you can talk to and plan something out and be productive,” Cheatham said. 

Cheatham is not planning on taking his military career any further than Powell High School but he has been able to develop social and leadership skills while in the group, he said. 

“It would be very easy to make friends here and it’s very enjoyable doing activities like this,” Cheatham said as an encouragement for others to join. 

Heine and Rhys Bray, a Powell High senior and Command Sgt. Major, both emphasized that students can join the club even if they don’t want to go into the military. 

Joining the JROTC can help students learn leadership skills, dependability and loyalty, and it looks good on a job resume, they said. 

Plus being in the JROTC is not all drill and discipline — there are events being planned for the group this spring.

“It’s not always nose to the grindstone, you have fun,” Heine said. “These guys need to know, as long as you put in the work, you can have some fun.”