Rising to the challenge

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Fifteen students from Morris, Coal City, Minooka and Gardner-South Wilmington participated in the Illinois National Guard Law Enforcement Challenge last week through their class at the Grundy Area Vocational Center. (Photos provided)

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It was all in a day’s work for 15 area high students – running three miles carrying 25-pound backpacks, ducking grenades, crawling under barbed wire, scaling a seven-and-a-half foot wall, rescuing a hostage from armed bad guys, and even pulling a wounded officer through gunfire to safety.

Grundy Area Vocational Center criminal justice students did those very things last week at the first Illinois National Guard Law Enforcement Challenge, and they took second place over eight other vocational centers, to boot.

The grenades weren’t real, of course, and the gunfire was actually from paintball guns, but the three-mile run was true to form, as was the obstacle course that included scaling the wall.

“The hardest part for me was the obstacle course,” said Morris senior Toni Childress. “I’m five foot two, and the climbing wall seemed like it was eight feet tall. Our teammates helped us over.”

“It was fun,” said Anthony Lawless, another Morris senior who participated in the challenge. “I was sore for about four days afterward, though.”

Lawless said he got pummeled by paintballs during one segment of the challenge, but it was all timed, and he had to keep moving forward toward his goal. The worst hits were one on his forehead that knocked his head backward and a few on his fingers that left bruises that lasted for days.

Childress said her favorite part of the challenge was entering and clearing the rooms where they were being shot with paintballs.

“Our team did really good on that,” she said.

The students who participated on the challenge were GAVC Criminal Justice I and II students – all juniors and seniors from high schools in Morris, Minooka, Coal City, and Gardner-South Wilmington. It was held Oct. 13 at the Marseilles National Guard Training Facility.

GAVC criminal justice teacher and 30-year Grundy County Sheriff’s Department deputy veteran Craig Williamson thought it would be good training for the students to go to the challenge. He took a few students to the challenge’s pilot program last year, where they competed against two other schools.

“This gave them a chance to compete against other students,” Williamson said. “To test what they’re learning in class.”

The GAVC classes don’t supply the physical training, though. Students who volunteered to go were expected to be physically able to run three miles and to handle the various exercises that comprised the obstacle course.

Childress said she is in pretty good shape and didn’t have much trouble keeping up with the pace. Lawless plays football and said they routinely run two miles during practice, so he was able to handle the three-mile run. The hard surfaces weren’t easy on his ankles, though, he said.

It was teamwork that helped them the most, both agreed. They were shown the obstacle course before running it and had time to strategize. Lawless knew he would be slower getting through the three-foot tunnel because of his size. He wasn’t the quickest crawling underneath the barbed wire, either, for the same reason.

Childress had just the opposite problem. She got a boost from teammates to scale the tall tower, and got help from Lawless on the four-foot leaning wall.

“I threw her over the slant wall,” he said.

That was the part Williamson appreciated most – his students working together as a team, helping others through what might not be their strongest suits.

“I was very proud of them taking second,” he said. “They worked well together as a team, helping each other. To me, that was worth it, there. That’s important in law enforcement.”

Both Childress and Lawless said they want to pursue careers in law enforcement – Childress as a federal agent and Lawless as a police officer.

Other students who participated in the challenge were David Spinola, Shawn Schultz, Andrew Tuley, Joel Gotz, Andy Oehlwein, Katie Goudie, Eduardo Lopez, Jalen Grady, Joye Gentry, Matthew Stevens, Brandon Ford, Charles Phillips, and Zach Entwistle.

Besides GAVC, the schools that participated this year were Bloomington, Collinsville, Decatur, Indian Valley Vocational Center, Kankakee Area Career Center, Lincolnland Technical Education Center, Livingston Area Career Center, and Will County Career Center.

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