The air rifle team---featuring four cadets from the JROTC program at the Allen County-Scottsville High School---is the 2017 District Air Rifle champions.
The honor for the team comes after weeks of learning, training, and competitions.
“Air rifle basically is precision marksmanship,” explained JROTC instructor Sgt. Major Joey Simpson. “Students have to first receive air rifle safety training and pass the air rifle safety exam. Then, the students get to fire the rifle in the prone, kneeling, and standing positions and the students who basically shoot the best earn a spot on the rifle team. A team consists of four students. They each will fire 10 shots in each of the three positions. In our district, we have Allen, Barren, Logan, and Bowling Green high schools. Each school hosts one match for everyone in the district to attend. After, the four matches are completed we simply tally the scores and declare the district winner and identify the top individual marksman.”
AC-S cadets Presley Swain, Brandon Thompson, Logan Hardcastle, and Francisco Rubio posted a combined score of 3,477 to out shoot Barren County (3,323), Logan County (2,859) and Bowling Green (2,299).
Individual awards winners included Thompson who placed second overall with a score of 923. Rubio was third individually (890) with Hardcastle placing fifth (803).
Sgt. Major Simpson notes that precision marksmanship skills can provide college opportunities for students in years to come.
“Precision Marksmanship is an Olympic sport and many colleges such as the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville offer scholarships each year to individuals to be on their collegiate teams,” Simpson added. “So, hopefully one of these days a student from ACS will get to go to college free and compete at a much higher level.”