Ranger Challenge Team

R

rotchopeful4

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Mar 20, 2018
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I am going to be an MS1 this fall on a 3 year AROTC scholarship, and am looking to tryout for my schools ranger challenge team, does anyone know what the tryout may consist of?
 
The RC teams are required to have a minimum of one cadet from each class, usually that means they have only one MS1. First and foremost you need to have a very good and most likely the highest APFT score among the MS1's that will be trying out for the RC team. A lot will depend on when your battalion selects their team, if it's very close to the start of school then the APFT will be a huge factor because they won't have much else to look at. If you have some time before they select the team then learn all you can and practice what you learn. Some battalions may have a try out but many will simply select the team from the list of cadets that are interested based on how they feel they will do. There is a lot of endurance involved so make sure you max or get real close to maxing the run score for the APFT.
 
Be aware that the Ranger Challenge team, while prestigious, is also very time intensive. As an MS-I, your first order of business is to get good grades, participate in other ROTC activities, and continuously improve your APFT.

If you are the cadet who can balance all of that, and still get top grades, then by all means go for it! I am just asking you to be realistic about your bandwidth.
 
My son made the Ranger Challenge team as a freshman. He didn’t have the highest APFT but a good one. But he quickly earned the older guys respect early on and even though he was told he would be an alternate for the actual competition, he accepted that and did whatever was needed for the team before and during the competition. This year he will compete at the competition but he sucked it up year one to get there. AROTC-dad is right though...grades must be first in your mind. The team trains extremely hard during the year so be prepared for that too.

But go for it. Show the older guys you want it. Not just in the APFT but in everything you do early on. My son is actually very quiet, so you don’t have to be all gung ho. But he is a steady leader and it shows through. Good luck to yourself.
 
My daughter did RC her Freshman year and my son competed all (4) years. His junior year, the team did exceptionally well and went to West Point to compete in a full blown National competition. That was a cool experience for them and they were all pretty impressed with the facilities at West Point.
 
I know it may depend from school to school, but does each team meet and train every morning?
 
It depends from school to school...what did your program tell you when you asked them?
 
They will most likely cover this at orientation, the best you can do until then is train, train, train. My DD is helping with her school’s freshman AROTC orientation this week, and that is definitely one of the topics they cover. Depending on the size of the school it might be competing. My daughters school is smaller, so there have only been one or two freshman interested each year.
 
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