Southern Preparatory Academy Report: Cruise In to RangerFest 2026

Look forward to this year's Scholarship Banquet at the Marriott Grand National in Opelika [https://southernprepacademy.org/scholarship-banquet/] Friday [4-24-26] to showcase The Southern's recent accomplishments and prepare for next year's cohort designed to support promising students preparing for their future. Please also mark your calendar for the following day; Saturday, April 25, 2026 for this year's RangerFest

[https://southernprepacademy.org/rangerfest/] at Southern Preparatory Academy from 10:00am to 3:00pm [CT] at the Camp Hill campus. It is the rare kind of Saturday where a classic car, a 5K finish line, a JROTC Raider heat, a 10U wrestling bracket, a vendors' row, and a campus open house all share the same venue. SoPrep remains one of a dozen remaining prep schools in the nation with a Corps of Cadets (military) program.

We're blessed to have this gem right here in Sweet Home Alabama, located at Camp Hill just off US Hwy 280 in East Central Alabama.

Admission to RangerFest is free, with the lone exception of the 5K. If you want to (re)visit the campus, bring family, friends, and neighbors, and see how The Southern has returned to their founding principles under Col. Ramsby's watch... Now is the time.

The Banquet remains a great place to hear President Col. Corey Ramsby's update on moving forward out of SoPrep's 'Winter at Valley Forge'- i.e., rebuilding ranks and enrollment for the next academic year. RangerFest is the next morning, so those who can make a Friday evening and a Saturday of celebration please consider doing both.

Col. Ramsby's successful efforts transforming SoPrep continue to be most apparent to those who give The Southern another look and witness the changes/return to the Academy's roots as an Agriculture and Industry School which morphed into a military academy. A proud alumnus now serving on the Board coined the phrase, "no longer a place of detention; now a school of retention," witnessing a 98% retention rate.

Increased donor support and a growing stack of applications for the 2026-27 cohort round out the picture. RangerFest is the day the surrounding community gets to walk the campus and observe for themselves.

Come see what evolving toward 'a more perfect prep school' looks like. SoPrep JROTC earned the "Gold Star" (Honor Unit of Distinction) following their most recent cadet inspection. The Ranger Battalion JROTC earned 96% grade. In my 30 years of teaching, where I didn't inflate grades and couldn't comprehend over 4.0 GPAs, this is a solid A headed to an A+. Only 10% of programs nationwide achieve this honor.

The Ranger Battalion's JPA Evaluation and is yet another Honor Unit of Distinction / Gold Star! Sometimes referred to as Exceptional, it confirms SoPrep's JROTC program is operating at a high standard of excellence with exemplary cadet performance. Units earning this score enjoy the right to wear a gold star and often qualify for a longer, 3-year interval before their next formal inspection, compared to lower scores which might require more frequent, intensive review. Even more impressive, it also confers upon the SoPrep Academy President [Col. Ramsby] direct nominating authority to all three service academies in the nation.

Kudos CSM Greg Caywood and MSG Kimberlyn Burns for your dedication and hard work with the JROTC program.

The Southern's noteworthy early history includes George Washington Carver and Lyman Ward's connections through shared commitment to agricultural/industrial education in our region, (re)counted at p. 43 of Jerri Beck's "Their Country's Pride" on the Academy's Centennial. Booker T. Washington explicitly advocated industrial and agricultural training as a path out of poverty for the South's black population, Lyman Ward similarly championed this effort for whites. The 'plowshares into swords and vice versa' framing

Alumnus Maj. Bill Roughton has stressed these past years is nowhere more visible than on a Rangerfest Saturday, when Cadets, 10U wrestlers, car folks, and vendors all share the same patch of Tallapoosa County ground.

Now for the Classic Car Cruise In, which I confess is the event I hold in fond anticipation. Hot rods, muscle, tri-fives, old pickups, farm trucks, anything a driver is proud to roll up Ward Circle and let folks admire.. all welcome. A classic car show is an apropos community anchor for an Agriculture and Industry School turned military academy because car culture and military service have often (re)cycled the same mechanical inheritance. Fathers and grandfathers of many SoPrep Cadets learned to turn a wrench in a motor pool, a barn, or a back yard and passed that knowledge along.

A RangerFest Cruise In is where that inheritance gets to park in the open air, get walked around, and get talked about with folks who appreciate it. Some alums pressed me to drive in one of our old pieces of 'American Iron' so look for my bride's '79 El Camino at the Cruise In and forgive the mostly original paint.