Lynn English drill team marches to glory

LYNN – The Lynn English High School Marine Corps Junior Drill Team returned home from a national competition Thursday laden with trophies and honors.The team, comprised of 18 girls and 20 boys from freshmen to senior class, attended the 2010 National High School Drill Team Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla. The students left Lynn April 28.”They did an amazing job and they are very thankful to all the people who helped make this happen,” said Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Oswald, the team leader at Lynn English.The boys’ team finished fifth out of 33 and returned home with three trophies – a second in armed regulation, which follows a 77-step routine set up by the competition organizers; a second in armed inspection, where uniforms are inspected as is the manual of arms presentation.”All the judges are active-duty military from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps,” said Owsald. “They are DIs (drill instructors) on active duty at the recruit depots.”The boys’ team also finished fourth in the armed platoon exhibition drill.The Lynn English girls ranked 13th out of 25 schools as an unarmed platoon, meaning they carried no weapons. They finished fifth in unarmed inspections. Lynn cadet Corey Blanco received a forth-place Commander’s Cup for drilling the unarmed platoon, which consisted of hundreds of students at the competition.Three other Lynn cadets won individual awards – Charles Santamaria took a ninth in the individual armed drill; Joanna Medina secured 13th place in the unarmed individual drill; and Cristal Hernandez won fourth place in individual drills.”The team is broken down into armed and unarmed platoons,” said Oswald. “We practice every day from 6:30-7:30 a.m. and on some days in the afternoon too.”