Spartan Challenge

By: Casey Robinson on Sep 26, 2021 | Categories: General

The 2021 Spartan Challenge featured numerous fun events: the "Ruck Sack Relay", "Basketball Arcade", "Tricycle Race", "Watermelon Challenge", "Tent Assembly Challenge", and others. Captains Yeatts and Leagones officiated the "Soccer Juggling Challenge". In this event, each company designated eight cadets to participate. In turn, the participants took shots on their choice of two different goals and earned points for each successful shot. The top three scorers in each group then advanced to a second round. In the second round, each participant had two attempts to juggle a soccer ball as many times as they could. The highest score in each company was recorded and, when all companies had completed the challenge, the scores were ranked first through fifth, and an overall winner was declared. The challenge tested the individual skills of each participant, but also called for leadership, teamwork, peer encouragement, and collective strategy.

Soccer is a skills-based sport that teaches us that physical strength, speed, and stature do not always equate to victory. This lesson was never more evident than during the Soccer Juggling Challenge where Cadet James Pittman, one of the smaller cadets attending CMA, dominated the challenge and earned first place for Delta Company with a score of 136. The next closest scores were 55 and 81.