At 7 a.m. Friday, 21 teenagers started "hell day" — eight hours in which they had to prove everything they had learned during the previous four days of a Sahuarita teen police academy.
By 9:15 a.m., the youths in the six-day Sahuarita Police Explorer Academy had finished early-morning drills and a physical-training exam called a Cooper Test, which for them involved running a mile and doing as many sit-ups and push-ups as they could in two minutes.
And the day's work had barely begun — with a 50-question written exam, building-search and high-risk traffic-stop scenarios, and for those with parental consent, the challenge of being hit with pepper spray lying ahead.
"What's your goal today?" drill instructor Matt Williams — a K-9 officer for the Sahuarita Police Department — asked the teens standing in formation.
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Dylan Patton, 13, responded at once. "To do the best we can, sir."
He and the other teenagers — 13 from Sahuarita Police Explorer Post 693 and eight from South Tucson Explorer Post 317 — were the first young cadets to go through the Sahuarita Police Department's Explorer Academy. They ranged in age from 13 to 19.
The Explorer program — which is under the umbrella of the Boys Scouts of America, though it's open to girls — is new to Sahuarita, having started in June.
Twelve to 15 kids regularly attend the Sahuarita Police Explorer Post's weekly meetings, held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Sahuarita Police Department, 315 W. Sahuarita Center Way. The meetings are open to 12- to 20-year-olds, but they must be at least 13 to go into the academy.
They must go through an academy such as the one held last week at the police department and Sahuarita High School to become full Explorers, rather than cadets, and be able to go on ride-alongs with officers.
Last week's academy, which cost $30 for each person, was a combination of classroom learning, physical training and hands-on law-enforcement scenarios.
"I like the crime-scene investigations," said Michael Betts, a Sahuarita police Explorer. "It's like a puzzle."
Betts, 15, is a freshman at Sahuarita High School.
From the start, he and the other teens at the academy were given rules and responsibilities — such as taking off their hats when entering buildings and always wearing their identification lanyards, said Officer Belinda Roach, the program's adviser and training coordinator.
Whenever one person broke the rules, they all had to do push-ups.
The purpose is to instill in them that they have to become a team, Roach said.
She worked with the South Tucson Police Department's Explorer program for three years before moving to the Sahuarita Police Department as a patrol officer.
Officer Patrick Nelson, a motorcycle officer who also is a Sahuarita Police Explorer Post adviser, said the program helps to shape youths.
It teaches them discipline and respect, he said, and it also gives the teens a chance to see police officers both at work and in a personal setting.
"We know the parents and teachers of all our kids," he said.
Most of the academy sessions were held at the Sahuarita Police Department, but Friday's activities were at Sahuarita High School, 350 W. Sahuarita Road, so as to do building-search scenarios without disrupting the regular activities of the Police Department.
The high school was closed for spring break, so the teen police academy used campus locations as sites for crime scenarios.
Clothed in uniforms and carrying fake guns, the teen police cadets conducted simulated traffic stops in the campus parking lot. They had to tell the drivers to get out of their cars while closely watching for actions such as a driver sticking a gun — also fake — in his pants.
The cadets also did simulated searches in school buildings, and they had to find hiding suspects, frisk them and find hidden fake weapons.
The building searches were among Sahuarita Explorer Vanessa Tena's favorite parts of the academy. Tena, a 15-year-old Sahuarita High School freshman, wants to be a law-enforcement officer when she gets older.
Like Tena, many of the teens want to pursue police-related careers.
Debbie Barbere, 14, wants to either work in crime-scene investigation or join the FBI. The Sahuarita Middle School eighth-grader joined the Sahuarita Police Explorer Post a few weeks ago.
Want to be an Explorer?
For more information on becoming a Sahuarita Police Department Explorer, go to one of the post's weekly meetings, held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Sahuarita Police Department, 315 W. Sahuarita Center Way.
You also can call the Sahuarita Police Department at 344-7000, Officer Belinda Roach at 396-0378, or Officer Patrick Nelson at 396-0365.
