The Arkadelphia High School Cyberpatriot team, Badger Elite, was recognized at the April APSD School Board Meeting after their outstanding performance in the U.S. Air Force Cyberpatriot Competition during the 2021-22 season. Badger Elite qualified and competed in the U.S. CyberPatriot Semi-final Round in the Silver Tier Category on January 28, 2022. The Badgers qualified to compete in the nationwide competition by winning the Arkansas Cyberpatriot competition for the Silver Tier-Open Category during the December Competition. To qualify, a team must be in the top 25% of teams (based on State/December Round score) to advance to the Semifinal Round.
In the semi-finals competition, the AHS CyberPatriot team finished in third place among 111 competitors from across the United States and Canada. There were no other Arkansas teams competing in the Silver Tier. The team finished behind the first-place team from Colorado and second-place team from California.
In the state-level competition in December, Badger Elite received the highest score for any Arkansas team in the Silver Tier and the Open Category. The team finished 22nd place in the Silver Tier, Open Category amongst all competitors (U.S. & Canada). There were 501 teams that competed in the Open Category in the Silver Tier. These results put them in the top 5% in the Silver Tier-Open Category (the top 25% advance to the semifinals). The Badger Elite score was higher than the AVERAGE score in the Gold and Platinum Tiers. There were over 2700 total teams in December throughout the United States and Canada.
Team members for the AHS Badger Elite Cyberpatriot team are seniors Joshua LeVar and Colin Phillips; juniors Calvin Clardy, Stanley Cordero, Kevin Ghodela, and De'lion Summerville. The team is coached by Vince Herron and assisted by Clair Mays.
CyberPatriot is the Air Force Association's National Youth Cyber Education Program, created to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation's future.
