Youth Competitive Shooting Sports
NASHPORT, Ohio – Youth shooting sports has been a popular extracurricular activity in communities across the nation for decades.
And a group of local shooting enthusiasts are actively developing extracurricular programs within area school districts to create additional opportunities for student involvement.
“I believe this is going to be our fourth year and I believe Tri Valley started the same time we did. John Glenn is, I believe, their second year. And it takes a while because of the safety aspect. You have to get people comfortable with what we’re doing. We’re out here representing the schools. And personally with West Muskingum, it took me about a year to get permission to do this,” West Muskingum Shooting Sports Head Coach Conrad Wilkins said
Academic eligibility requirements are instituted the same as any other varsity sport, in addition to drug testing, extensive training and instruction. That system of coaching instills situational awareness along with an added sense of responsibility, which helps foster confidence and self esteem within the students.
“Obviously, safety first. That’s a major component of this sport. But then also too, this is an opportunity for kids that maybe aren’t a roundball athlete, an opportunity to hone some of these skills that they’ll use in the outdoors and be able to use it the rest of their lives,” TV Clay Target Team Head Coach Jared Dosch said. “So some of the work that we’ve taken to get everything started at John Glenn is family involvement, team involvement, the school involvement is always a big thing as well. We’re trying to build more of the town and the people that are coming in to help us,” JG Trap Shooting Team Assistant Coach David Wilson said.
All three coaches are witnessing a rapidly-growing interest in their programs, which could lead students toward college scholarships, future career choices and possibly even an opportunity to try out for the Olympics.
“There was fliers for trap shooting and I really enjoyed shooting shot guns and all of that. So I joined it and started enjoying making new friends and shooting guns, I guess,” John Glenn High School Sophomore Brycen Wilson said. “A lot of times, especially just shooting on your free time, it’s pretty easy to get into. You can go find any range in your area that has clay shooting and you can bring about any shotgun for clays. And same thing with rifles. You can use any rifle you want, pistols. Just have a good time. Don’t stress if you’re not doing too good because everybody starts somewhere.” West Muskingum High School Sophomore Ethin Coward added.
Tune into WHIZ News tomorrow night to find out some of the obstacles that these area coaches and students are faced with, in their pursuit of establishing a different form of sporting competition.
