Leadership Academy Project Spotlight: JROTC Rifle Team Captain Develops Sustainable Plan for Team Leadership

Reprinted from Traditions, Spring 2017-2018
July 20, 2017

“In my final leadership project, at times, I experienced failure, and yet, because of that experience,I feel more prepared for college.” -Riley Domler

For his Leadership Academy project, Riley Domler, member of JROTC and co-captain on the CDH Rifle Team, created a sustainable program to lead the Rifle Team effectively during in-season and off-season preparation.

After being a member of the CDH Rifle Team for three years, it was an obvious choice for incoming senior and co-captain of the team, Riley Domler to commit to enhancing the role of team captain by developing a template for team leadership that could be used or modified by future captains.

Domler explained that the team goal was to be more prepared for competition season. He also wanted to create a program that is sustainable so that the Rifle Team structure will operate in a more structured way in the future as well. This includes action plans for outlining team goals, the responsibilities of the captain, strategies for team motivation, and expectations and evaluation methods.

To this end, Domler, and his co-captain, Jack Calkins, started a program that included first-ever summer practices.

“This was important because our competition to qualify for the Regional Championships in Ohio was early in the season, and our shooters needed to be prepared,” explained Domler.

“When I mention ‘failure’ it doesn’t mean I didn’t succeed or that it wasn’t valuable – just the opposite,” explained Domler. He references one particular challenge when his emotions got the best of him after taking some poor shots. “My own frustration was detrimental to the other shooters because it took away their confidence and focus.”

He credits Leadership Academy for fostering skills such as keeping composure, time management, as well as interpersonal skills specifically regarding leadership. “Because of this experience, I learned the value of changing the way a message is delivered to yield the best possible results from others.”

“Leadership Academy taught me the skills I needed when I experienced these shortcomings in the face of stress,” noted Domler. “These experiences will prove beneficial over time because we need to be able to learn how to adapt when things are not easy.”

The CDH Rifle Team finished this season with some new successes. After three solid days of competing in the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) JROTC Regional Championship Tournament at Camp Perry in Ohio, which was only the second time CDH has qualified for the regional match, they finished stronger than ever. “We shot much better this time and placed higher!” noted Domler proudly.

He would recommend Leadership Academy to incoming juniors because it gives students and opportunity to learn crucial leadership skills from a broad spectrum of qualified instructors.

Next year, Domler heads to the Unites States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

This article and more are featured in the Spring 2017-2018 issue of the CDH Magazine, Traditions.