Ooltewah’s male JROTC Raider Team wins national championship

Raider Nationals / Courtesy of David B Fleming

OOLTEWAH, Tenn. (WDEF) — Ooltewah High School’s Army JROTC Raider Team recently won first place in the All-Service Raider National Championship.

The competition took place November 16-19 in Molena, Georgia, at the General Lawhorn Boy Scout Camp. It was led by retired 1SG Michael McCullough.

The male Raider team won first place overall in the Challenge Division. The female team won fourth place overall in the Master’s Division.

The male team has also won the Hamilton County Raider competition for eight years consecutively. McCullough says they are the only team to have this many consecutive team wins and overall wins.

They say the female team also had three consecutive Hamilton County championship wins.

McCullough says the last time Ooltewah High School competed in the National Championship was in 2019, at which point they finished as runner-up.

The Raiders also volunteer hundreds of hours yearly to improve the high school and the community.

They say the JROTC’s mission is to “motivate young people to be better citizens.”