10 High School Teams Competed for Defense Jobs at the 12th Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition -- One Thing Stood Out

Most cybersecurity competitions are skills showcases. The Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition, hosted each April in North Charleston, is that -- and also something closer to a hiring pipeline. Over the eleven years preceding the 2025 event, the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, which organizes the competition, hired 27 PCDC participants directly. That number, cited in official documentation of the event, puts a concrete labor market outcome on what is otherwise often framed as a student enrichment exercise.

The 12th annual PCDC ran April 12-14, 2025, at Trident Technical College. High school competition was held Saturday, with CyberPatriot serving as the qualifier. Ten teams participated at the secondary level: Home School STEM (which won the high school division for the first time), Ashley Ridge, Clover, Aiken Scholars Academy, Cane Bay, two teams from CTE Innovation Center, Academic Magnet, Military Magnet Academy, and Academy for the Arts, Science and Technology. College teams competed Sunday, with The Citadel taking first place. Professional teams followed Monday. Total participation exceeded 180 competitors, supported by approximately 100 volunteers from partner organizations including the Lowcountry Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

For South Carolina's Cybersecurity pathway students, PCDC provides a specific kind of preparation that classroom instruction cannot replicate: sustained pressure in a realistic defense scenario. Teams receive 90 minutes of preparation before the timed event, then work to protect simulated network environments while red teams actively attack. The skills tested -- network monitoring, incident response, system hardening, and communication under pressure -- align directly with the real-world responsibilities of security operations center analysts, one of the primary entry points for cybersecurity pathway graduates.

South Carolina's Cybersecurity pathway prepares students for credentials including Cisco CyberOps Associate, CompTIA Security+, and CCNA, all of which translate into competitive starting positions. Cybersecurity analysts in the state earn a median of $93,683, growing at 21.6% nationally -- a rate BLS classifies as much faster than average, with approximately 2,900 annual openings. The Information Security Specialist level reaches $124,910. For students in districts along the I-26 corridor and coastal South Carolina, NIWC Atlantic's presence in North Charleston adds a federal employer dimension: cybersecurity roles at defense contractors and Navy research facilities routinely pay above private-sector equivalents and offer clearance sponsorship that significantly accelerates long-term earning potential.

The competition's 12-year run reflects something durable about South Carolina's cybersecurity ecosystem -- a state with federal defense installations, a growing private tech sector, and a community college system actively building credential pathways. The question for districts is whether their CTE cybersecurity programs are investing in the preparation and CyberPatriot participation that funnel students into events like PCDC, or leaving that pipeline development to the handful of schools that have already figured it out.