Farmington High School senior Parker Rawson is heading to Anniston, Ala., 13-15 Feb to compete in the 2025 JROTC Service Championships. Rawson, a 4 th year Cadet in the MO-961 Air Force Junior ROTC marksmanship program, is the first Marksmanship Cadet at Farmington High School to compete in the JROTC [Air Force Regionals] Postal Competition and advance to the JROTC Service Championships.
“Knowing I am the first to make it this far is intimidating but empowering. I feel like I have a duty to my team and intend to take 1st place,” Rawson said.
The Farmington JROTC Marksmanship Team was started in 2011, 15 years after the JROTC program was established at Farmington High School. The 2024 marksmanship season marks the first time the team competed in the JROTC Postal Competition.
“Though our practice as a team has remained the same, in the last couple years I have been practicing at home as well.” Rawson said. “I realized I had the potential to go beyond our local matches and with that decided I needed to get more practice outside of the season, including running, building my arm strength and working on my breath control.”
And practice paid off. Rawson placed 2nd out of 95 shooters at the JROTC Postal Competition, advancing him to the 2025 JROTC Service Championships.
The JROTC Postal Competition is one of the most participated shooting competitions in the United States, with thousands of JROTC Cadets representing Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force JROTCs competing each year from September – December. Qualifiers will advance to the JROTC Service Championships held in February, where all the Services teams compete against each other in three separate locations across the country. The top teams or individuals from the Service Championships will then advance to the final round, the JROTC National Championships, held at Camp Perry, Ohio, in March.
Rawson has one sight in mind: Nationals.
He attributes discipline to his success over the years. “The most important quality is discipline, which I have struggled with, building it up over the years,” he said. “It is required for safety, training, control and precision.”
As Rawson comes to the end of his high school and JROTC chapter, he’s excited to be the first Cadet to have this opportunity and continue to grow future Cadets.
“I plan to come back next year as a coach and continue to help build my team until I am deployed elsewhere,” he stated. “I fully intend to take a team to nationals before my involvement with the group is over.”