The Cyberpatriot team at Atkins is one of the most successful academic teams in Atkins HS school history, winning the state championship two years in a row (2018 and 2019), the first team in school history to do so. Atkins now has three teams, the JROTC team, the non-JROTC team, and the All-Girls team, all coached by teacher Scott Plaster, and with different requirements (be in the JROTC program, open to all students, and be a female). We are currently seeking new members for its All Girls team and its JROTC team. Find out more below:

What Is Cyberpatriot?

​CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program.  At the center of CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. The competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services in a six hour period.  Teams compete for the top placement within their state and region, and the top teams in the nation earn all-expenses paid trips to Baltimore, MD for the National Finals Competition where they can earn national recognition and scholarship money.​

Students at Atkins who are not a part of the JROTC program can still compete in Cyberpatriot, coached by teacher Scott Plaster. The team size is small (2 to 6 students), but the team is always looking to build for the future. The skill set of interested students should include Windows and Linux security and networking. Competitions are day-long events.

The first year's team qualified for the Silver Tier, but did not make it past the State Round. In 2016-17, the team not only made the Platinum tier, but finished 2nd in the state round, and at the Regional Round finished as the top NC team, and 8th in the entire Southeast. The third year brought the team's first state championship, and last year, the team repeated the state championship, with the JROTC team also finishing as state champion runner-up. 

This year, Coach Plaster added an All-Girls Team. See Mr. Plaster in Room 501 if you're interested in being a future team member or apply now.