CyberPatriot is booting up for another season! Created by the Air & Space Forces Association, to inspire students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering or mathematics disciplines. At the core of the program is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, the nation’s largest cyber defense competition that puts high school students in charge of securing virtual networks. Emmett Smith (10) said, “It’s about coding and networking, and cyber defense.”

CyberPatriot seems to have found a solid foothold in Pine Creek. “We filled up fast. I was actually surprised,” said Mr. Errickson, head coach for CyberPatriot. He originally had planned for only 5 teams to be filled, however, a surge in interest afforded the club to field 8 teams. Mr. Errick

son, who teaches IT Fundamentals, Cybersecurity 1 and oversees the Student Tech Assistants, said “CyberPatriot is a lot of fun for me. I don’t really get caught up too much in the winning and losing because really there aren’t winners or losers.” Errickson further explains, “for a lot of kids, they just want to earn Platinum Tier status.”  

CyberPatriot veteran, Caleb Borlin (10) said his favorite part of CyberPatriot is “you get to work with computers and you go [to tournaments] Friday or Saturday and just have pizza and play on computers.” Another CyberPatriot student, Jacob Silvis (11) said “I didn’t think I’d like it but we are three weeks in and I’ve found that I liked it more than I thought I would”