Posted: May 24, 2022 by Stephanie Troutman
Congrats to Zane Parrish, '23 and his teammates from the Boar 's Head Brigade! UNG 's Ranger Challenge team earned its fourth consecutive ROTC championship and took home fourth place overall in the 2022 Sandhurst Military Skills Competition at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Ranger Challenge is the varsity sport of Army ROTC, and teams compete against other colleges in events such as patrol, marksmanship, weapons assembly, grenade assault course, Army Combat Fitness Test, land navigation, and road march.
Coming to UNG from Pickering H.S. in Leesville, LA, Zane is entering his final year as a political science major. Asked about his experience at Ranger Challenge '22 Zane says, "The competition wasn 't easy, but it is manageable when you have good people around you. UNG does well in this competition because we have a good culture and better training than most other ROTC programs."
Col. Bryan Kirk, UNG professor of military science, lauded the cadets ' tenacity at Sandhurst.
"The preparation, sacrifice and dedication of this team are inspiring. They enter each competition knowing every other ROTC team is out to take their spot, and the academies know that we are consistently within striking distance," Kirk said. "The mental and physical strength of this team is clear in their consistent ability to compete at the highest levels."
Zane is already looking forward to next year 's competition — "I look forward to going back next year and getting another shot at beating all the teams at Sandhurst."
[Note: Portions of this article first appeared in an article from the UNG Newsroom that originally appeared in May 2022. [https://ung.edu/news/articles/2022/05/cadets-win-rotc-title-at-sandhurst.php ]