Members of the OHS SEAL team traveled to Coronado, CA recently for the sixth annual Navy Seal Challenge. The Oakdale team had been training since November, so expectations were high this year. The Navy Seal Challenge is a competition between high schools from all over California and is a test of strength, endurance, and mental toughness, patterned after actual SEAL training exercises. This year the Oakdale team had several financial sponsors including Allcare IPA and SaveMart, which helped defray the cost of training and traveling to So Cal.

The Navy Seals put the ocean in play this year by requiring each team to paddle boats into the surf and then to complete a 3 mile run while carrying the same boats. The calisthenics portion of the competition was tougher than last year with each team having to complete 200 push-ups, 4 count squats, pull ups, and 4 count flutter kicks, which might not seem so tough, unless you are doing it under the unmerciful eye of a Navy SEAL who only counts perfection, and is not afraid to bark at your mediocrity. The OHS team learned the hard way that there is no way to cheat a SEAL when it comes to calisthenics.

The competition team was made up of the top ten students from the club based on timed exercises. Many tried out but only ten made the team to travel and compete.

Oakdale participants included Jackson Metcalfe, Sam Cole, Elijah Ryan, Noah Rodrigues, Gian Carlo Van Duyn, Vincent Albertoni, Esteban Villasenor, Brenden Ruddy, Steven Kjeldgaard and Cole Lichaus.

The OHS team was spent physically at the end of the day and finished outside of the top three, but the majority of the team will be back next year for another try. The OHS SEAL club is open to all students, male and female, who want the chance to push themselves beyond their limits, both mentally and physically. Anyone interested in joining the club can get information by looking for the Oakdale Navy SEAL club on Facebook.