Youth Competitive Shooting League
NASHPORT, Ohio – On Wednesday, we learned about the formation of organized, school affiliated, shooting sports here in the Muskingum Valley.
The growing number of participating schools along with the increasing number of student shooters is leading to the formation of a league but without a properly designed facility for multi-squad competitions.
West Muskingum Coach Conrad Wilkins is also the President of the Muskingum Valley Shooting Sports Foundation. He is actively searching for suitable acreage to build a league capable facility and can be contacted through the West Muskingum School District.
“The biggest thing we need is a place to call home,” Wilkins said. “The Muskingum Valley Youth Shooting Sports… we’re looking for some property where we can build a field that is large enough. We can put in multiple trap and skeet fields so that we can get these teams in one place and we can have a tri-match or you know your typical league shoot. But we just need a place to call home.”
In addition to range fees, the costs of targets and ammunition create a major hurdle not only for the teams but the kids as well, as a huge amount of resources are spent just for practice. Youth Shooting Sports Funding Foundation President Scott Brown explained how his organization raises funds, which help relieve some of the financial obstacles that the teams and their shooters are faced with.
“Our main goal is to make money to give to the kids for shooting sports,” Brown said. “We want to make their shooting experience as accessible as possible. And we know how expensive the sport is and every dollar we can raise to put towards them… that’s one more kid that may not have had the opportunity to enjoy the sport. Whether it’s safety equipment, ammo, firearms, training, whatever it needs to be, we just want to make sure that they have the resources available to them.”
To learn more about the many efforts Y-S-S-F-F is making to promote youth shooting, and how you can participate in the raffles and events they hold to raise funds, you can visit them online. Conrad Wilkins can be reached at cwilkins@westmschools.org.
