PCHS Bulletin - Haven Wood
Date Published - April 30, 2026
The JROTC program has had an outstanding second semester, with competitive teams wrapping up their seasons as the Bulls Battalion now prepares for next year.
The program’s success is highlighted by their recent accreditation inspection. They earned an exceptional score of 99.25 out of 100. LTC Belford Wilson said this is not only the highest score in the district (tied with Manatee HS) but also ranks as one of the highest scores achieved by any program in the Sixth Brigade which covers Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
Wilson expressed his pride and appreciation for the support the program has received and is “excited to continue building on this momentum.”
The year has seen numerous achievements from leadership to competition to service projects.
Boys State
Cadets Bryce Jandula (Jr.), Kyle Ni (Jr.), and Wyatt Forsyth (Jr.) were selected as delegates to the upcoming Boys State camp this summer. Boys State is described as a week-long leadership and citizenship program for high school juniors. It focuses on teaching participants about government, civic responsibility, and leadership.
The nomination process, which included an interview in Tampa and a resume submission, is very competitive, as only ten boys are selected per county. Parrish took three of those selections for Manatee County.
“It’s very honorary,” Ni said. “So me applying I felt like I wasn’t able to compete with the others because of how competitive the process is. But after finding out that I got chosen to go to Boys State, I felt really honored and kind of surprised.”
“It’s really cool that we get to go, and it shows that we are all very capable,” Jandula said, adding that he hopes to improve his debate and speech skills while attending.
“There will be some pretty big competition,” Forsyth said. “I am hoping to learn how to be someone who is a good leader and to learn how the government works more in detail.”
Additionally, JROTC competition teams have performed exceptionally well.
Raiders
The Raider teams wrapped up their seasons in November, placing third at the state championships.
Rifle
The Rifle Team had a historic year, placing 13th in the National Competition held in Alabama. Jandula, Emma Zagrocki (Jr.), Kaylin Kitchens (Sr.) and Jasmine Dominguez (Sr.) represented Parrish at Nationals, as well as at the state competition where they placed 5th overall.
Dominguez says, “it was really great to be one of the first programs to be able to represent Parrish at nationals.” She goes on to say that the road trip and competition was an incredible team bonding experience.
Kitchens says that their dedication to practices really paid off this year, making it their best year yet and that she was surprised and immensely proud of how far they made it.
The team agreed that despite the competition being national, it was less stressful than states, with more of a relaxed feeling.
Drill
The Drill team was more uniform this year with a more set way of determining the team. They competed in the state drill meet on Saturday, April 11 with multiple top ten finishes.
JLAB
JLAB mentor Mia Falcone (Jr.) says that within the three teams, the Academic A team moved on to level two. Falcone also says that more freshmen were on the teams this year compared to previous years.
Color Guard
The Color Guard is a season that takes place throughout the whole year. Their last Color Guard practice took place on April 27. Their last event was presenting the colors at the Manatee County School Board meeting on April 28. They have one more scheduled Color Guard that is for the school board. At the state competition their male Color Guard placed second. Dominguez says that participation increased, especially among the under-classmen this year.
Archery
Falcone and Lucas Smith (Fr.) received the award of top female archer and top male archer at the JROTC award ceremony.
Community Service
JROTC continues to partner with the community. They completed their Service-Learning Project with Dogs Inc., an organization providing service dogs to those in need. Additionally, they launched a Continuous Learning Project inspired by their continued presence in local elementary schools promoting literacy and evaluating mentorship.
Dominguez says that for their continuous improvement plan in previous years they did rations with the elementary schools nearby and they read to classes during literacy week.
This year they wanted to have more participation from the students where it's their first year in JROTC. They focused a lot on preparing them and planning, as well as getting more schools involved.
They were able to get one more school involved, as well as an over 20% increase in first year cadet participation.
Award Ceremony
To cap off the year, the Bulls Battalion held their annual awards ceremony on April 7, 2026, celebrating the year’s success and officially conducting the change in command between the outgoing Top 3 officers and the incoming Top 3 officers.
Outgoing
Battalion Commander: Kelton Hardee (Sr.)
Executive Officer: Jonathan Shillinglaw (Sr.)
Command Sergeant Major: Jasmine Dominguez (Sr.)
Incoming
Battalion Commander: Emma Zagrocki (Jr.)
Executive Officer: Mia Falcone (Jr.)
Command Sergeant Major: Emma Whitson (Jr.)
Dominguez and Hardee feel that the year went better than they could have hoped, with the most participation and competition success, as well as the most well-prepared cadets they've ever had. They feel as though they've “really pushed people to take on hard roles and pushed them to learn more about themselves and how they need to improve as a leader.” They go on to say that how well they did this year sets the standard for the students next year to beat.
Each year they tend to gain about 20 cadets, so this year they have 180 and next year they are predicted to have 200.
These successes and more are highlighted in the Bulls Battalion newsletters posted monthly. Visit their website to learn more. Https://www.bullsbattalion.com/