CMP Proposes ‘Virtual Championships’ to Take Place of JROTC, CMP Air Rifle Championships
August 19, 2020
With the uncertainty of the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming months, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is looking ahead to the 2020-2021 three-position air rifle competition season.
In an attempt to place a supplemental plan for allowing junior athletes to compete in air gun events in the coming months, the CMP has created an altered series of matches where participants fire completely from their home or local ranges.
The CMP “virtual” matches will stand as substitutes for the JROTC Service, JROTC National and CMP Regional Three-Position Air Rifle Championships. Instead of traveling to a location in the north, south or west to compete on CMP’s Mobile Electronic Target Range as in the past, qualifying athletes would stay in their hometowns.
The competition series of the annual JROTC and CMP Three-Position Championships traditionally begins with a postal match, where competitors fire at their home ranges on official CMP targets and mail them back for scoring once athletes have completed the match.
The new “virtual championships” will be modeled after the postal matches, with some modifications to verify rules and safety measures are followed. As an added measure to ensure the well-being of all competing in CMP events, we emphasize respecting local guidance on COVID-19 while within the range.
The JROTC and CMP Championship Postal events will begin in October 2020 and conclude in February 2021 – an expanded set of time compared to past Postal Matches. This extra time will allow schools and athletes time to address and adjust to current safety and local guidelines.
As of July 2020, several teams are still unable to practice on their school or club ranges, while others are only able to practice at 50 percent capacity. Shared equipment, requiring close interaction, has also presented issues for coaches and athletes. The Postal Matches will extend into 2021 to accommodate schools that may be subject to a later start date for students.
Top teams of the Postal events will be invited to participate in the Virtual Service and Regional Championships. The CMP hopes to be able to host the CMP National Championship in 2021 at Camp Perry, with possible modifications, but that is to be determined at a later date.
Stay informed about upcoming and adjusted events by following CMP’s social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Learn more about the JROTC and CMP Championships by viewing the “Youth” dropdown on the CMP website homepage.
— Ashley Brugnone, CMP Staff Writer
I’m very pleased the CMP has found a creative workaround to keep our student athletes safe while allowing them to compete. In some ways, this may be the most egalitarian season ever since I’ve been aware that there are always a handful of teams that qualify for Nationals but are not able to raise the funds to travel to compete. I think it’s important that we find a workaround and learn from it so we can fine tune it over time. We never know when there will be another global or national scenario in which we need to draw on what we’ve learned from this year. This is an opportunity to employ the SMEAC principles. I agree it’s going to be important how we implement the Execution phase, to make sure that there’s consistency from team to team and that a certain standard of protocol is adhered to by all. One way of doing this would be to have a virtual training for current coaches for example, then ask them to inform their current team of the rules, and ask the coaches to “trade places” with another team when they shoot their qualifying scores. Either way, no plan survives first contact and I think we can all expect there to be iterations where we learn what works and what doesn’t so we can improve for the future. This is the military way and we are doing our student athletes a service by implementing it here. Our patience and input is valuable when it’s constructive and advances the play. Having the opportunity to compete is character building and in my mind worth it, even if we can only execute this first time to 85% of expectation. We can aim for 95% the second time, etc.
Thanks for thinking outside the box! My AFJROTC unit will compete and try to keep this year somewhat normal and we hope to see you in Anniston again next year!
My input is as follows:
I uderstand the challenges for the JROTC Service Championships, however I would like to see CMP push back a true physical JROTC Nationals to a later date…instead of MAR how about tentatively keeping it on the calendar for late APR or early May?
I’ll pass this onto our 3P staff and managers.
Thanks,
Christine
Let’s do it! There is no other way for the foreseeable future. It would be nice to leave a possibility to still hold JROTC Nationals at one of the CMP centers if things lighten up. We are on board and thank you for working to make this possible.
It sounds like a program is going to be conducted for some JROTC rifle team units as of this time. Our ARMY JROTC command will Not allow training or competitions of any type this semester(throughout the rest of the year) thus not allowing us to have a program throughout 2020. I feel very bad for the cadets I’ve been coaching the past two years who were so much eager to start training and competing. Hopefully the JROTC rifle program can be moved to the spring when health issues are in check.
Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach FL is very interested; we are still virtual for school
I think I can get JROTC schools from Palm Beach, Martin, St Lucie and Okeechobee interested
It sounds like a great idea at this time. However, using the cover of verifying rules and safety measures is bogus. CMP, JROTC Service Nationals and other Council members Championships only enforces a fraction of the numerous printed rules as published in the National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules book, even at the “National” level competitions, ignore the rules requiring specific measuring, gauging and thickness instruments, while rendering a “wink of the eye” when conducting competition for National Championships. Believe if we have established rules they should be applicable to the junior market and not something lifted from International level shooting just to have a rule book that gives the appearance of rules and practices that are not enforceable by all Council members. Qualifying thru postal or virtual competition is a good idea if being observed by a third party who sign off on accurate procedures and equipment control. A level playing field for all with fair competition for all athletes.