The Bob Luna Explorer Competition was held at Buhach Colony High School on Saturday with approximately 90 explorers participating in the event. There were explorers from Gustine, Livingston, CHP Merced, CHP Oakland, Merced County Sheriffs, Los Banos with about 50 to 60 MUHSD students taking part in the competition.

 

The event was helped put on by CTE Public Service Instructors Alexandra Dietz of Buhach Colony and Buck Ledford from El Capitan.The explorers were put through a variety of physical agility testing and different law enforcement scenarios as many officers from the various law enforcement officers from the various departments volunteered their time.

 

The agility tests included dragging a 165-pound dummy, a 500-meter run, an obstacle course and making their way over wooden and chain-link walls. The dummy was a big challenge as it outweighed many of the participants. The explorers cheered on those who were struggling to help them drag the dummy past the finish line.

“It’s so nice to see the encouragement,” Dietz said. “On campus, a lot of times students don’t like to talk about what they’re doing with the explorers or they are a little bit embarrassed about it, but when they get out here together, everyone is excited and they have a common goal. It’s all encouraging, there is no negativity.”

 

The Explorer Competition recently started back up after it was knocked out during the COVID pandemic. For some, this was the first time getting to watch the competition. The Buhach Colony Public Safety Club acted as hosts for the event, escorting the different teams around campus during the competition.

 

“I like to watch the different things you do in these competitions,” said Buhach Colony student Jamie Lawrence. “I’ve never watched one of these competitions before so it’s really interesting to see them push themselves to do it and push themselves to be their best. Some of these kids we know from El Cap and we’ve known them before and we’ve seen how the Explorers program has changed them for the better.”

 

“I love the team work and how everyone is cheering each other on even though they are from different counties,” added Buhach Colony student Gianna Freitas. “It’s really cool to see. It’s really inspiring to see and it really makes me want to try to do this next year.”

After completing the physical agility tests, the explorers were then put through different law enforcement scenarios including a crime scene investigation, suspicious person call, domestic violence and a felony vehicle stop. 

 

“This not only puts their skills to the test but they also get to feel the pressure of what it’s like when you don’t have all the information when you walk onto the scene,” Dietz said. “They get to feel what it’s like to be in law enforcement and have to make those hard decisions. They use their critical thinking skills, they have to communicate with their team, that’s a big part of the scoring. Talking through and making the correct judgment calls and making sure they are justifying their actions.”

 

At the end of the competition the teams competed in a tug-of-war competition. “There is some friendly competition among all the groups,” Dietz said. “A lot of our explorers and public safety clubs we go to a lot of the same events so even though they are on different teams everyone knows each other. Hopefully next year it will get even bigger.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUSHD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.