ROTC Captures Fourth At Ranger Challenge

Members of SHSU's all-male and co-ed Ranger Challenge teams, with adviser 2nd Lt. Gregory Canady.

Sam Houston State University's ROTC Ranger Challenge all-male team fought their way to a fourth place finish in their division out of more than 20 teams at the U.S. Army 12th Brigade competition held last weekend at Camp Bullis in San Antonio.

SHSU's co-ed team earned ninth place in their division.

"I asked both teams to give me 100 percent, and at the end of the competition, that's exactly what they did," said Lt. Col. Rick King, head of the Military Science department. "I'm proud of both teams.

“Ahead of us (in the all-male division) was Texas A&M, New Mexico State University and TCU, which are all pretty large ROTC programs,” King said. “We're a medium sized, so I was very pleased with the results of the competition.”

The 2005 Ranger Challenge, a three-day event, consisted of eight events, including an Army physical fitness test, written examination, 10k ruck march, a brigade commander’s event, day and night land navigation, hand grenade assault course and M16 assembly/disassembly.

"It's the varsity sport of ROTC," said cadet Beau Hughes, a senior English major who coached the team with fellow cadet Kenton Manion. "It's a very big deal; it tests the cadets’ physical and emotional ability to handle stressful situations."

Hughes said the team, whose members voluntarily try-out to participate, has been training since the second day of school and worked hard to compete for their spots.

"We had physical training every morning from 5:30-7 that involves running, pushups, sit ups, a lot of endurance training, road marches with up to 60 pounds on your back and marching," he said. "And we had technical skills training every afternoon for anywhere between two and four hours.

"I was very pleased with how they performed this year," he said. “I had a very young team, and it's a nerve-racking and painful experience. There were injuries incurred on both the male and co-ed teams, but they just kept driving on and pushing through it, and did very well."

Hughes and Manion, both senior, MS-4 level cadets, were the first cadets to ever coach the team.

"They're solid, and they both participated in the competition last year, so they knew what the standards were," King said.

Second Lt. Gregory Canady, who works in SHSU’s Gold Bar recruiting office, was the team adviser, but having recently received his commission and never having participated on a challenge team, he said he was at a loss on how to train them, which is why Hughes and Manion were asked.

“The cadre who have coached in the years past are either deployed in combat right now or got reassigned after their time here was complete,” he said.

The competition consisted of 21 schools from Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, which entered 34 teams in three divisions: all male, which had 21 competing teams; co-ed, which had 13 competing teams and all female, which had two competing teams.

Members of the all-male team included captain Jeffery Owen, Manion, Hughes, John Gonzales, Zach Mitchell, Ryan Jones and Rhett Sanders.

Co-ed team members were captain Ryan Vidaurri, Josh Vacek, Jon Corb, Andrew Jordan, Weston Amaya, Marisa Campos, Jamesia Redwine, Johnathan Crane and Artem Richards.

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SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
Oct. 20, 2005
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