North Medford High School senior one of only seven to receive NROTC scholarship

MEDFORD, Ore. — A North Medford High School senior is one of seven on the west coast who received a scholarship for the Marine Corps.

Brett Rucker is a lineman on the Black Tornado football team and got the NROTC scholarship, which is for $180,000.

He is only one of four recipients in Oregon with seven chosen between Alaska and California out of 60 applicants.

Rucker was evaluated and compared to his peers based on integrity, leadership, having over a 3.7 GPA and 1200 SAT score, as well as pull-ups, crunches and a three-mile run.

His recruiter surprised him with the check at one of his practices last week.

“It was a humongous rush of different emotions,” Rucker said. “One, I was super happy that I got it and it was super awesome to have in front of my teammates and have kind of show my work I‘ve accomplished,” he added.

Rucker will attend Oregon State University in the fall with plans to major in civil engineering.

After that he’ll attend boot camp with the marines, entering as a Second Lieutenant.