Carrollton High School celebrated a successful CyberPatriot season with a state championship victory, securing the JROTC team’s third consecutive title. They will compete in the national competition on Jan. 24, hosted virtually at CHS.
CyberPatriot, an educational program created by the Air and Space Forces Association, was established to inspire K-12 students to pursue careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to the nation’s future. At the core of the program is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, the nation’s largest cyber defense competition that puts high school students in charge of securing virtual networks.
The CHS CyberPatriot program comprises three teams, with the JROTC team winning first place in the Platinum Tier to secure the state title. Coached by CHS teacher Robby Blakemore, the JROTC team members include Tylde Alexander, Venkata Koppireddy, Austin Ennis, Kenia Galves-Hernandez and Alexa Gibbs. These participants are members of the school’s Air Force JROTC program.
“We’re excited to see this outstanding group of students earn a state championship as a result of their hard work and dedication,” shared Ian Lyle, CHS principal. “Mr. Blakemore and his CyberPatriot teams continue to excel and garner interest from students about the growing field of cybersecurity. The students on this team are learning valuable and marketable skills through this competition.”
The CyberPatriot competition challenges students to identify and fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities in virtual operating systems. Teams have four hours to complete three challenges—Network Security, Cisco Networking, and Packet Tracer—and are scored on system security. Each task tests their knowledge as they work in simulations that mimic real software scenarios to build or repair networks. While showcasing their skills, competitors apply their training and knowledge to overcome obstacles within the simulation.
“As I reflect over the last three years, the JROTC team has seen tremendous improvement,” Blakemore said, “I am very proud of their efforts to develop their skills to do well in this competition.”
Additionally, the CyberPatriot program included two civilian teams, one of which was the school’s first all-girls team. The group earned third place, securing their own spot at Nationals on January 24th.
Computer science students competing on the all-girls team are Alaina Dhople, Lucy Slappey, Juliet Browning, Simranjeet Kaur and Tanya Aggarwal. The all-boys team members are Omar DeJesus, Wade Ballard, Will Brewer, Richard Ashlock, Bryce Reckner and Jival Patel.
