There’s no denying we’ve got a lot of passionate people in our community, many of them students, teachers and administrators. We see lots of successes, in academics, sports, the arts and other areas. Over the weekend, the Tharptown High School rocketry team blasted off to success once again, coming in second in the nation for the American Rocketry Challenge, and we’re thrilled to see them reach new heights.

They competed against the other 99 teams who made it to nationals, and it’s no small thing they were able to come out so close to the top. They’re no strangers to success, though, placing tenth in the nation last year, and ninth in the nation the previous year. Year after year, they are showing their enthusiasm and commitment to excellence through teamwork and dedicated practice, research and experimentation, and we applaud them for seeing the fruits of all their hard work.

Not only have they won the acclaim that goes along with such a prestigious accomplishment but also $15,000 for their team and $1,000 for the school. Team members have expressed their increasing enthusiasm, as well as their heightened desire to do everything they can to win first place next year. It’s not all fun and games, though.
The work they’re putting in has plenty of applications for life outside of high school.

The science skills they are learning, as well as the nuances of working successfully as a team, have direct parallels to work they may decide to pursue after graduation, whether in rocketry or other fields, though rocketry is certainly a field with ever-increasing potential for growth in the job market, especially heightened by our proximity to Huntsville and the work being done there.

To learn more about the Tharptown High School rocketry team’s recent successes, read our article in this week’s paper that goes more in-depth. It starts on the front page in the print edition, and it can be found here on our website. Congratulations, Tharptown Rocketry!  We can’t wait to see what you accomplish next.