Faced with the chance to be part of something that the Clover Park High Air Force JROTC unit had never done before, cadets Joel Johnson and Jason Stancil boldly accepted the challenge.

This year the unit started an Information Technology Squadron within its ranks, with the goal of setting up a team to compete in the CyberPatriot competition. Established by the Air Force Association in 2009, CyberPatriot is an initiative designed to inspire students toward careers in cyber security or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines critical to the nation's future.

"It's one more thing for us to offer to students to keep them involved in school," said Lt. Col. Gary Roberts, the unit's commander. "Without question, there was a lot of excitement for it."

Johnson and Stancil are members of a group of six that are competing in CyberPatriot, which kicked off the first phase of the competition on Oct. 28.

The first competition, CyberPatriot I, involved only Civil Air Patrol and Air Force Junior ROTC cadets. Now in its fourth phase, CyberPatriot is the nation's premiere cyber defense competition, open to all accredited public, private and parochial high schools, CAP units, Junior ROTC units from all services and registered home school programs.

Competitors must be high school students and at least 13 years old. During each of three rounds before the national championship competition, teams are faced with realistic computer network threats from their home locations.

"It's uncharted territory (for the unit)," said Stancil, a senior and cadet commander of the Information Technology Squadron. "It's kind of intimidating."

But everyone in the group is working hard to build a familiarity with the competition and how everything works. Each team has six hours to seek out weaknesses in simulated online networks and work to defend those networks from threat scenarios. Teams are scored according to how quickly and effectively they establish and maintain secure networks.

"Everyone is especially excited about being pioneers," said Johnson, a sophomore. "It was super overwhelming when we got started, but everyone has really come together."

The group's goal is to build a continuity folder so those who follow them will know how hit the ground running.

Both cadets understand the value of understanding the role information security plays in today's high-tech world and are excited to be on the cutting edge of learning more about it.

"It's definitely interesting," said Stancil, whose mother is currently on active duty in the Air Force and father recently retired.

"It's teaching kids a great foundation of technology and STEM subjects," said Johnson, whose father is a retired Green Beret.

Roberts admires the fact both are training the younger cadets for the future.

"We have a group of ninth-graders that are very responsive," he said.

That will be a key ingredient in building up a team for the future that can be competitive against other more seasoned units, Roberts added.