The State - News from June 4, 1985

The rural Central California town of Sanger has set an apparent record with seven appointments from a single high school to the U.S. Naval Academy and one to its prep school in one year, Navy officials said. Never in the 18-year history of the Naval Junior ROTC has one unit produced as many appointees, according to the Naval Education and Training Command headquartered in Pensacola, Fla. Six young men and one woman from the town east of Fresno will report to Annapolis after they graduate this month. Another graduate will enter the academy next year if he completes his work at the Naval Academy Prep School. Kea Atwater, a Navy spokeswoman, said officials also believe seven entering the Academy from one high school graduating class is a record, but those kinds of statistics have not been kept until now. “We pick them up early and we start motivating them,” said John Nicholson, a retired Navy captain who directs Sanger High School’s Naval ROTC program.