Athletes from nearly a dozen Fort Walton Beach High School programs joined U.S. Army recruiters at Steve Riggs Stadium on Wednesday morning for an America 250-themed workout ahead of the Fourth of July, grinding through hundreds of pushups, squats, a full-field sled drag and more in the summer heat.

• The workout brought together athletes from football, volleyball, lacrosse, cheerleading, baseball, girls weightlifting, boys weightlifting, flag football and ROTC for a morning of competition and camaraderie organized by Army recruiters from the Fort Walton Beach office.

Staff Sgt. Jarrett Reynolds said the school reached out to the Army and asked if they could host a workout to honor America’s 250th birthday. He was all in.

“We met with the coaches and they gave us a guidance of what they wanted, and we just did the rest,” Reynolds said.

The workout began with a sled drag across the full length of the football field, an event pulled directly from the Army’s physical fitness test designed to simulate dragging an injured person to safety. From there, teams worked through 250 pushups and 250 squats before finishing with a 250-yard litter carry, with each number chosen to commemorate the nation’s milestone.

Athletes were grouped across sports rather than by program, forcing them to work alongside teammates they don’t normally train with. Scoring was based on total time through every event, with 10-second penalties built in for attention-to-detail violations, such as having two people in a box or partners being too far apart.

Reynolds said the penalty structure was intentional.

• “You do the little things right, everything else comes together,” he said. “You start doing the little things wrong, it turns into a major issue. No matter what you’re doing, if you’re in an office, playing sports, you’re overseas fighting wars, it doesn’t matter.”

A faculty team that included coaches and the school’s athletic secretary also competed alongside the students. Reynolds and his fellow recruiters were part of that team, going through the same workout as the athletes.

“They killed it. They really did,” Reynolds said of the faculty team. “I was super amazed and it was super fun to get to compete with them.”

Holly McDaniel, the school’s Athletic Director, said the event was about more than just a workout.

“I think this event is amazing, not only for our kids to acknowledge what this Fourth of July is, and to start celebrating the right way, but just gratitude,” McDaniel said. “To live in a country that is so amazing with people that serve our country and give us the right for our freedom, and to be able to work out with them…it’s incredible.”

McDaniel said watching athletes cheer each other on across sports will carry into the school year.

• “When you do things like this together and when you build relationships, you support each other more, and that’s just natural,” she said. “It’s the natural human element of things.”

The workout is one example of an ongoing partnership between the military and the high school. McDaniel said recruiters from the Army and other branches are regular figures on campus, volunteering, mentoring students and attending events throughout the year.

“Kids need to see that there’s so many different paths that they can go on after they graduate,” McDaniel said. “It’s not just one path. There are many paths that can create so many different opportunities for you.”

Reynolds, whose background is in military police, compared the approach to community policing.

“A lot of people don’t know what we do. They think of the Army or they think of the military, and they think of just going overseas and fighting. And that’s all they know,” he said. “Getting out here and to be able to show our personalities to the high schoolers, show what the military and the Army has gave us and the benefits that they can get from it..is huge.”

At the close of the workout, Reynolds gathered the students and delivered a message about the meaning behind the morning.

“250 years of America. A lot of people have sacrificed their lives, the ultimate sacrifice, and a lot of people forget that,” Reynolds told the students. “A lot of people forget about Fourth of July and everything that we have because of the people that have served. And I just wanted to remind them of that.”