Brother Martin hosted the championship academic competition for the NJROTC five state area on Saturday, January 31. In a normal year, teams from around the area gather to compete for a chance to advance to the national competition. As with most things, this year was different. The unit had to figure out how to do a live competition in a format that was unique but still challenging. Cadet Nicholas Lemoine ’21 led the competition as the moderator, reading questions live. 

Normally, the quiz bowl style competition consists of teams answering questions related to military topics such as organization, history, leadership studies, and current events. The virtual format had to adapt to the environment. Using Google Meets and the NJROTC provided Turning Point online, five-person teams participated live while answering questions on a time limit. The Crusader cadets quickly adapted to the new format on the go. They had to deal with technology challenges, scoring changes, and working with remote teams. Cadet Cameron Donewar ’21 led the operations team grading rounds as they came in with the unique format. The room felt the pressure of trying to quickly, manually grade a system that is usually automatic. Their hard work greatly contributed to the success of the day.

The unit’s motto this year is “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.” At the end of the day, 32 teams completed the challenging competition due to the hard work from the Crusader Company.