Kubasaki coach Brent Cook and his Dragons wrestlers celebrate their repeat Far East Division I individual freestyle team title. The Dragons would go on to sweep both D-I team titles, individual freestyle and dual meet, giving Cook three Far East wrestling banners in his four years of coaching. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
URUMA, Okinawa – Decisions, decisions. Should Brent Cook continue coaching a Kubasaki wrestling team that had just swept the 2020 Far East Division I team awards? Or should he devote his energies full time to making the Dragons JROTC team competitive not just on the Pacific, but the national level?
Torn between dual responsibilities, Cook, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major, chose the latter – and it has paid off handsomely.
Fresh off a second straight Marine Corps JROTC high school national championship in unarmed drill in April, Cook has been named the Marine Corps’ JROTC Instructor of the Year.
“Sergeant Major Cook is a dedicated educator who goes above and beyond to inspire, mentor and educate his cadets,” Kubasaki principal Silvanus Thrower said in a DODEA-Pacific news release dated June 24. “This is a well-deserved recognition for our phenomenal JROTC instructor.”
“I’m humbled to be selected for such a prestigious honor and I don’t take it lightly,” Cook said in an online interview. “I appreciate the Kubasaki family for nominating me. That means a lot.”
Dragon Battalion members react after being announced the overall winners of the national MCJROTC drill competition April 12, 2023, at the Expo Center, Fredericksburg, Va. It was the first of their two consecutive national titles. (Courtesy of Marine Corps Junior )
Cook, 56, originally from Michigan but who calls Fort Gibson, Okla., home, served 29 years in the Marine Corps, retiring in 2015 while assigned as Marine Force Korea sergeant major. From there, he became JROTC enlisted instructor at Kubasaki, which both of his daughters had earlier attended. That same year, 2016, he also began a four-year stint as Dragons wrestling coach.
After winning three Far East D-I wrestling banners, Cook decided to give up coaching wrestling, saying he wanted to devote more time to his JROTC instructional duties.
Since then, the honors have been piling up seemingly non-stop for Cook:
- His Dragons won a Pacific regional drill championship in 2018 at Hawaii.
- The last two years, Kubasaki has won drill championships in what’s called Region 4, featuring 60 other high schools, including other DODEA-Pacific schools, plus ones on Guam, Hawaii and stretching all the way to the Mississippi River.
- The crowning jewel was winning national drill championships the last two years, going up against seven other U.S. high school JROTC battalions. That gives him six Far East championship banners, to go with the 2019 Far East D-I wrestling individual freestyle team title and the 2020 freestyle and dual-meet team banners.
Cook says he credits Dragon Battalion commander retired Capt. Kenn Gipson, school administration and a military community that “supports the program 110 percent, that I have the best parents and cadets in DODEA.”
He also said he was thankful for the assistance he’s gotten from other JROTC instructors worldwide. “There are so many instructors in programs throughout the world that I reach out to for advice all the time, that in my opinion should be earning this award,” Cook said.
To be part of the same JROTC battalion that his daughters were once a part of “is amazing,” Cook said in the news release. “I love what I do and I hope to be doing this for a few more years to come.”
