Crime & Safety
Mahwah Kids Complete 'Military-Style' Obstacle Course
Kids attending the youth leadership academy did jumping jacks, box jumps, and push-ups before the half-mile course even began.
Rain Thursday morning didn’t stop a group of 204 recruits – township students attending the Mahwah Municipal Alliance’s Youth Leadership Academy this week – from participating in a military-style obstacle course at Continental Soldiers Field.
Civilian Military Combine, a company that sets up obstacle course races throughout the country, set up a half-mile course at the park for the YLA participants to try. It included four-foot-high aluminum hurdles, a 10-foot-high ladder wall, dome climb, and 150-pound dummy drag to the finish line. YLAers, who range in age from 13 to 17, also needed to complete four sets of seven push-ups, seven box jumps, and seven jumping jacks each before completing the course.
The kids ran through the course in teams of 12, and had to get through the full obstacle course together. Each team then selected its top four performers to run through the course for time. Most finished in about five to six minutes.
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“They have to do it as a team,” Matt Keller, the co-founder and president of Civilian Military Combine said. “They help each other cross over the obstacles. It’s designed to build leadership and teamwork skills.”
Mahwah Police Sgt. Rob Curtis, who runs the YLA, said the course fits in perfectly with the lessons the program teaches.
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“We want to build the leaders of tomorrow, and we want them to have strong minds, and strong bodies,” Curtis said. When going through the course, the kids, “were fantastic. We saw them exhibit a level of cooperation and support for one another that we haven’t seen all week.”
This year was the first that the CMC, which typically sets up races for thousands of participants at a time, set up a course at the YLA - which is now in its seventh season. Throughout the week, YLA participants have stayed at Ramapo College with volunteer Mahwah Police officers, who have led them through various team and leadership skill-building exercises, like silent formation drills, a paintball excursion, and a talent show.
The class is set to graduate Friday afternoon with a community event featuring a keynote address from Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno.
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