CLUB NEWS

Reading Rebels Hit the Season Running and Have Not Stopped…

Submitted by Maureen Trickett, Massachusetts State Director & CMP Club Coordinator

The team hit the season with a bang. We have grown from a team of six to a team of 14. This is really exciting, and we hope it keeps on growing.

The Rebels started back to practice at the end of September with a few weeks off after getting back from Nationals in Ohio where they shot Air, Smallbore and Highpower. What a great summer!

We have to thank all the members and board at Reading Rifle for building us our “new” Air Range building. If you have not seen it, feel free to stop by and check it out. It’s really nice.

Our competition season started by hosting The Ohio State University vs. Norwich University vs. our local juniors. The match was both air rifle and smallbore, so we had both ranges running at the same time. The club house was crazy all day with four full relays of both collegiate and junior shooters.

We had juniors participate from MA, NH, VT, RI, ME, CT and NY. Although the juniors did not win over Ohio State as a team, one of our juniors from NY, Princy Solis, was the top shooter in the air rifle event with a score of 594 with 42 x’s. Overall, it was a great experience to shoot side by side with the collegiate teams at our home range.

One of our former juniors, Andrew Duross, who shoots for Ohio State, was finally able to shoot in the new air range. When he was a junior, it was still in the planning stages. He shot one of his highest air scores while at this match. Must have been the old home range good vibes.

We did not waste much time and hosted back-to-back matches, soon adding the Baystate Games Air Rifle Match. This year, we combined the standing air match with a 3P air match that was well received. We were able to hand out lots and lots of medals.

We had fun with team names this year. In the 3p team matches, Gold went to Reading’s Team George, Silver to Reading’s Team Tom Brady and the Bronze to Reading’s Team Drake May. Teams for The 60 shot standing, Gold went to Reading’s Team Drake Maye, Silver to Reading’s Tom Brady and Bronze to Taunton’s Team Topgun. We hope to hand out more medals in the summer when we will host the Baystate summer games outdoors in smallbore.

What do you do when you have a free Saturday? Why, of course you run a Level 1 coaches class in the air range! Twelve new coaches graduated after two long days of instruction and hands-on demonstrations.

To enhance what the coaches had been taught, we had some of the older scouts come in and take a quick beginner course in rifle safety and air rifle. The coaches worked in groups, teaching the basic instructions of using and shooting an air rifle while benching and shooting at a target 10 meters away. The scouts were thrilled and left excited about what they had just learned, or it may have been the Reading Club hat they all received when they finished. Many wanted to come back and join the program.

The coaches felt they had learned so much and could not wait to go back to their clubs and start. Great way to spend the weekend opening the eyes in marksmanship to both the young and adults.

The event also included a shootoff of the top 8 shooters for each relay. The shootoff was a new experience for many of the juniors. Reading’s Junior Julia Wang came out on top for the gold with the top score of 588 and proceeded to take it all in the final.

Ending the year on the road several of the juniors traveled out to the sunny and freezing shores of Camp Perry in Ohio for the USA Shooting Winter Air Event that consisted of three days of shooting and a final. The juniors held their own against Olympians, collegiate shooters and marksmen from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit. Several personal bests were achieved, and no frostbite.

After a very short break over Christmas and New Year’s, we were back at it again. Traveling back out to Camp Perry for the 3P junior match and 60 shot standing competition. The team brought out nine shooters. One was our new Para-shooter Dorian on her first travel competition.

Both 4-person teams placed just out of medal reach in the 3P event, but all excelled in the 60 shot two-day event and shootoff. All nine had personal bests, and Julia Wang missed the shootoff by one slot. She consoled herself by getting a Toft’s Ice cream.

Next time, they are determined to take the top three places on the podium and make the shootoff.

We were very proud of all the shooters and how they worked as a team. Back home, due to the snow storm that took over the area, we had to cancel our trip down to Palmyra, PA, and participate in their air rifle and smallbore events. But, safety is more important, and there was lots of shoveling to be had.

We started February with a bang, hosting the Air Rifle Junior Olympics (JORC) on Saturday the 7th. We also hosted Akron University and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) vs. juniors on Sunday the 8th. Talk about two crazy days, and then throw in the Superbowl on top of it all!

We had four full relays for the JORC Air rifle qualifier. Reading’s Julia Wang was the State winner with a score of 589 and not only received the Gold Medal but also an automatic invite to the final selection match of the Junior Olympics in April at the CMP air range in Alabama.

Teammates for the women’s medals: Silver went to Phoebe Forgue (577) and Bronze to Amelia Daniels (574). In the Men’s medal category, Gold went to Reading’s Neico Marino (569) and to teammates Jack Daniels (565) for Silver and Lingyun Xu-Sun (563) for Bronze. A nice clean sweep for Reading.

Sunday was a madhouse with both ranges running and a foot of snow outside. A big Thank You to Scotty who came that night and cleared most of the snow away, allowing the big coach bus and van access so the collegiate teams and juniors could park.

We were on our way right at 8 a.m. with the first shot down range and continued with four relays of air rifle and and smallbore until 4 p.m. Akron University was very impressed by our facilities and hopes to return again next year.

Akron won over MIT but it was a good fight. The juniors held their own, falling between the scores put up by Akron and MIT. Such a great experience for them and also a great chance for coaches to see them and give us suggestions for our matches and range operations. Overall, it was a long cold, snowy, exhausting competitive two days for everyone. But the junior showed how tough and strong they really are and are always up to a challenge. Next was the Superbowl – OK, we won’t talk about that…on to the next event.

The following weekend, we could not just take off or sit around, so what do we do? Host the Junior Olympic Smallbore Qualifier. Four full relays of juniors hoping to qualify and get an invite to the final event in April that will be held at the CMP facilities in Talladega. The finals will be held outdoors.

The qualifier event was at 50 feet, with the top score of 581 by Jack Daniels, who was the state winner and shot an automatic qualifying score to the finals.

Other medals for the Men’s went to Reading’s Lingyun Xu-Sun (Silver) and teammate Neico Marino (Bronze). In the Women’s medals, Phoebe Forgue of Reading took the gold with a 572, while teammate Julia Wang took the Silver by an x from Ella Lee.

Now with the qualifiers over and the scores submitted, we wait to see who will be invited to the finals. Invites should be coming out next week.

The team also qualified for Regionals in Ohio in April. We submitted three teams, and all three teams made it to the final rounds. So, we are far from over yet, and we haven’t even started the highpower juniors. We have a short break before our next competitions and travel, but we will keep everyone posted.

Thank you again for all your support and encouragement of the junior programs at Reading Rifle. You can see our matches at www.readinghighpower.com. Come join in the fun.

Just a reminder, if anyone wants to make a donation to our team, a great way is directly to our team account with The MidwayUSA Foundation (account number is R4242).

Fundraising:

The MidwayUSA Foundation is another way for club members to donate to the team. Our Advanced Rifle team has a MidwayUSA Foundation Team Endowment, and every donation we receive for that endowment is matched! You can donate right to our team through their website, and 100 percent of your donation benefits our team and will be matched 1 to 1 from Midway. Spread the word that the MidwayUSA Foundation will match donations! Donations are tax deductible.Link directly to our endowment page: https://www.midwayusafoundation.org/team-profile/?id=R4243