SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, (WINK) \u2014 The Mariner High School Junior ROTC marksmanship team has built one of the best resumes in the country.<\/p>\n
The Tritons have won six national championships and nine state titles in the past four years. This season, they added three more state championships, sweeping what some in the sport call Florida\u2019s \u201cTriple Crown\u201d, titles through JROTC, the American Legion and the Civilian Marksmanship Program.<\/p>\n
But inside Mariner\u2019s range, the target is bigger than the one downrange.<\/p>\n
With air rifles in hand, athletes fire pellets at paper targets, with each shot tracked instantly on tablets beside them. It is a sport that demands focus, patience and control.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we’re shooting, you’re locked in, and you’re just focused, it’s you, your rifle, and the target,\u201d team commander Zoe Enslin said.<\/p>\n
Enslin and co-captain Elyssa Vazquez are two of the team\u2019s top shooters. Vazquez said this season was especially rewarding because of how far the team came.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really achieved all of our goals that we never thought we could meet, that’s pretty cool,\u201d Vazquez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning three state championships this year is really, it’s amazing. You don’t see every team doing that,\u201d Enslin said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Head coach and Army veteran Marybeth Williams said the success is about more than marksmanship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an all-around character that we try to instill in them,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
That character shows up outside the range.<\/p>\n
The team has carried a 3.6 cumulative grade-point average for six straight years, according to the program. It also has a 97% school attendance rate and has had no disciplinary infractions in six years.<\/p>\n
For Enslin and Vazquez, the lessons are already shaping what comes next.<\/p>\n
Enslin recently became certified as a nursing assistant and plans to study to become an anesthesiologist.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I’m gonna be working as a CNA, a certified nursing assistant, while I’m studying to be an anesthesiologist,\u201d Enslin said.<\/p>\n
Vazquez plans to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, study aeronautical science and join ROTC. She hopes to become a military officer and pilot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be a pilot,\u201d Vazquez said. \u201cBeing a pilot is very similar to the sport of marksmanship; it’s a lot of focus under pressure, knowing all the different fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Major Bryan Williams said that is the part of the program he and Marybeth are most proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team and the awards and the trophies are great,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the scholarships after school, the grade point averages, the discipline is what we’re really proud of, and we brag about those.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Marybeth Williams, the trophies are only part of the story. The bigger win is seeing students leave Mariner with discipline, direction and a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe athletes that they become towards the end of the season is just amazing to watch,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThey’re not just here for marksmanship. And to see them all doing something afterwards, it’s like a proud parent, not just a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, (WINK) \u2014 The Mariner High School Junior ROTC marksmanship team has built one of the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[26535,209,211,210,28,109966,109965,109967,215,1521],"class_list":["post-251779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-american-legion","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida","tag-marksman","tag-marksmanship","tag-marksmanship-badges","tag-shooting","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}