The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets’ “Ranger Challenge Team” received an immeasurable boost to its lethality and survivability in the form of a total revamp from the ground up of its strength and conditioning program as a result of Nate Young’s leadership, expertise, and experience. Experience that could not be more tailor-made to assist this program even further than just the physical aspect. As an Army veteran of over 20 years, a Green Beret, a senior leader with the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group, as well as his involvement in the Veterans Coaching Program, Nate is uniquely equipped to coach, counsel, and mentor future Army leaders.

An ROTC program’s “Ranger Challenge Team” contains the University’s most physically and mentally fit cadets selected from their peers to compete at the collegiate and international level against other teams of similarly selected cadets. The physical tasks required during competitions spans the breadth of a multitude of “functional fitness” items and irregular tasks such as “Ruck Marches” and long distance equipment carries often under simulated combat conditions.

The program has achieved record breaking numbers in the form of across the board increases in cadet’s ACFT (Army Combat Fitness Test) scores as well as a season completely absent of training-related injuries. As a recipient of the coaching myself, I have never felt more strong, flexible, mobile, or athletic in my life. With Nate’s constant stress on mobility, form, and technique, I have remained completely injury free and in fact have even resolved some old training injuries. The Team only received Nate 3 months prior to our culminating international competition where we placed 3rd best ROTC in the nation and 9 out of 48 teams, a marked improvement from last year, 12 out of 35.

The introduction of Nate and his programming was piecemeal at first as the University, Corps of Cadets, and Army ROTC programs collectively lacked the resources to support what was required to get us the good and new training that we needed, the training that Nate was bringing us. The training needs of cadets at a Texas A&M are unique in that their schedules are already very tightly regimented, meaning during our training windows we get in as much quality training as possible. The presence of Nate has ensured every second of our mornings are spent conducting meaningful training. Even given the less than optimal operational environment and inadequate dedicated training resources, Nate has still led us to new physical heights of endurance, injury-prevention, and strength the program has never seen. The incorporation of more dedicated Corps of Cadets training facilities would be an astronomical boon to the success of the University’s cadets as leaders, future officers, and international competitors. If the University wants to produce competitive leaders they must aggressively facilitate the healthy physical development of those leaders.