Two Army National Guard sergeants from region 7 combined their instinctual military skills with analytical intelligence to dominate at the 2025 ARNG Best Warrior Competition.
Utah National Guard Sgt. Luke Cloward earned “Noncommissioned Officer of the Year” and Sgt. Michael Fouts with Arizona National Guard was named “Soldier of the Year” for events held in multiple locations across Maryland this past summer. They were tapped to represent the ARNG at the Best Squad Competition in October, but due to the government shutdown and “a lapse in appropriations,” the event was canceled.
First established in the early 2000s, the ARNG Best Warrior Competition is one of the most prestigious tests of soldier skills and endurance. The competition evolves each year to reflect the ever-changing demands of global readiness. This year, guardsmen were tested on technical and tactical soldier skills, including a Marine Combat Fitness Test, an Army Fitness Test, small arms shooting ranges, day- and night-land navigation, Army warrior task lanes, an obstacle course, medical lanes, a presentation board, and a 15-mile ruck march.
Their victory is a testament to the months and years the two ARNG soldiers spent preparing themselves mentally and physically, but having trained with them both, one leader testified that they took very different approaches in their climbs to the top.
“Fouts is more like the grip-it-and-rip-it type, where Luke is really analytical,” said Master Sgt. Cole Christensen, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the Utah Best Warrior Competition. “It got them to the exact same point. They both won multiple competitions, and they’re going forward.”
Fouts and Cloward triumphed over 14 fellow guardsmen in the competition — all state and regional winners from Best Warrior competitions across the U.S.
The pair was to represent the ARNG in one of 12 teams at the Army’s Best Squad Competition.
Fouts, a 28-year-old infantryman in the Arizona Army National Guard’s 158th Infantry Regiment, hails from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He sought military service with the idea that it would be “an interesting adventure.”
He manages distribution centers for a living and said he enjoys leading a team at his job, but not so much the 9-to-5 workweek grind.
“I balance the two paths by volunteering for as many competitions, activations, schools, etc., as I can with the ARNG,” he told Reserve + National Guard Magazine. “You could say I use the Guard as an exciting escape from the mundane reality of civilian employment.”
As an infantryman, the tactical skills essential in the competition come as second nature, giving Fouts a competitive edge — something others said he appeared confident about.
“At the regional competition, Fouts flat-out dominated,” Christensen said.
Having trained with Fouts, Christensen said that he skirted the line between confident and cocky.
Little did Christensen know, the apparent arrogance was just a facade, as Fouts wasn’t expecting he’d make it that far.
“To be honest, it came as a surprise,” Fouts said. “I was battling closely with Spc. [Canyon] Blassingame from Montana the entire week, and thought he’d taken the competition on the last day. I ended up winning by a very small spread, so it felt good to have such a good battle with a fellow soldier like Canyon.”
What kept him going through the long haul of the competition was an ability to selectively disassociate from any barriers that could affect his morale.
“If you can quiet part of your mind just enough to block out things like bad weather, sore muscles, hunger or lack of sleep — while still maintaining enough focus to complete the task at hand — you can push yourself farther than you would ever imagine,” he said.
Cloward said that once he got to know Fouts, he realized he was “one hell of a soldier.”
Cloward, a 23-year-old motor vehicle operator assigned to the Utah National Guard’s 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), hails from Rexburg, Idaho. He dons coveralls while on base, but said he works 45 hours a week in scrubs as a medical assistant at Highland Family Practice in Salt Lake City.
“My primary purpose is to support other units, and that’s actually what I think led me to compete: I’m competing to represent those soldiers who are in support roles, who serve behind the scenes,” Cloward said.
He was studying to take the Medical College Admission Test while simultaneously training to compete.
“He’s the type [that] in life, he would be successful at literally anything he decided to put himself into,” Christensen said. “He’s got a drive that is like you don’t see very much of, and he’s got this ability to retain knowledge.”
Leading up to the competition, Cloward worried he simply was not going to have enough time in the day to do everything. He created Google spreadsheets to calculate the weight percentage of each event in the competition based on the maximum number of points possible. Marksmanship carried the most weight of any event.
“If it’s only 1% of the overall points, but it’s gonna take me 10 hours to study for it, that’s not very time efficient in terms of how many points I can get from my time on that,” Cloward told Reserve + National Guard Magazine. “That said, I studied for everything.”
He was able to visualize a plan he could tackle as the competition date got closer. He included a column to track and evaluate his proficiency in each event. His scale ranged from “Not Ready” and “Needs Work” to “Getting Closer” and ultimately “Comfortable.”
“I was really nerdy with it for sure,” Cloward said.
Fouts said he appreciated Cloward’s unique approach leading up to the competition.
“Training with Luke was an honor,” he said. “He is a very intelligent man, so it was always interesting to learn his thoughts and understand his approach on every challenge we were tackling together during our train-up.”
Fouts said he is thankful to Command Sgt. Maj. Walter Wayts for making the connections that led to him getting time to train in Utah ahead of the national competition.
Christensen said they tapped into the surrounding units to help train Cloward.
“We just found the areas where we had expertise within the state of Utah, and then aligned Luke with those,” Christensen said. “I think that greatly led to his, not only his success, but Utah as a story of success even at the national level of these competitions.”
Members of the Utah National Guard have won three of the last five years at the regional level of the competition, and had a competitor at the national level for the last five years.
Cloward competed in the Utah ARNG’s 2024 Best Warrior competition and advanced to the regional competition held in California but placed second. At the time, he was in school, taking up to 18 credit hours of pre-med courses each semester. The advantage Cloward had this year, according to Christensen, was that he had more time.
Cloward said he will apply to a plethora of medical schools soon, but he was first dedicating himself to training for the Best Squad Competition.
Prior to the cancelation announcement, the remaining ARNG competitors on Fouts’ and Cloward’s team for the Best Squad Competition were to be Spc. Canyon Blassingame, an infantryman in the Montana National Guard’s 163rd Combined Arms Battalion, Spc. Logan J. Rutledge, an infantryman in the Michigan Army National Guard’s 38th Infantry Division, and Staff Sgt. Brandon M. Byrne, a recruiting and retention noncommissioned officer in the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s Recruiting and Retention Battalion.
As the team leader, Cloward intended to share his spreadsheets as training methods with his squad.
“I’m hoping to be that guy that I would want as a leader,” Cloward said. “To really know my soldiers, and that way I can give them the feedback and give them the comfort so they don’t sit awake at night worried that they’re not going to pass or they’re not going to win.”