In its inaugural year, a Pieper Ranch Middle School CyberPatriot team received a big honor Feb. 22, being named the Rookie Team of the year in the San Antonio area.
The team which is led by first-year Coach Marci Anton, consists of six middle school students, who will be recognized at the 2019 San Antonio Mayor’s Cyber Cup Awards Luncheon & College Fair Saturday, March 30, at the Expo Hall of the Freeman Coliseum.
Initially, two PRMS teams competed in CyberPatriot competitions starting in November. In order to continue from one round to the next, a team must make a certain score. While the PRMS teams did not continue past round three, one of them earned the highest score among rookie teams. A Rookie School is one that has never competed in a CyberPatriot competition.
This year’s Rookie Team of the year consists of Peter Hall, eighth grader; Aidan Sarran, eighth grader; Conner Howard, eighth grader; Patrick Smith, seventh grader; Edward DeLaRosa, sixth grader; and Kyle Wheeler, sixth grader.
CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association to inspire kinder through 12th grade students towards careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.
Every Comal ISD middle and high school campus sponsors a CyberPatriot’s team or teams, and cyber security classes are taught in each middle school. PRMS is one of the district’s newest middle schools located at 1106 Kinder Parkway, San Antonio.
The CyberTexas Foundation and the San Antonio CyberPatriot Center of Excellence are hosting this year’s Mayor’s Cyber Cup Awards. For the fourth consecutive year, the San Antonio area has the distinction of having the most CyberPatriot teams registered in the nation with 317 teams including more than 90 middle school teams.
Photo: Back row from left is Peter Hall, Aidan Sarran, Conner Howard and Coach Marci Anton. Front row from left is Patrick Smith, Edward DeLaRosa and Kyle Wheeler.