On April 22, 2006, Reading Rifle and Revolver in Reading, MA hosted a Junior Highpower Clinic. Registration was interesting; I had more phone calls from adults who wanted to take the clinic than I had juniors. I even had one who wanted to know if I could push the age up to 28 to qualify as a junior so he could attend. I did not have to worry though about filling the junior slots, all 40 filled very quickly. All in all, I was really impressed that there was that much interest by both juniors and adults for the highpower sport. We were also very lucky that Nashua Fish & Game Assoc., Merrimack, NH, was running a clinic the same weekend that I could refer the adults to rather than flatly turning them down.

Our clinic was a two day event with the first day consisting mostly of indoor classroom work and demonstrations. The classroom section was run by Mike Schunemann, with position demonstrations by Kevin Trickett. They covered everything from equipment to pulling targets. They also went out and had a tour of the 200, 300 and 600 yard lines. And of course our favorite place, the pits. Also all were warned not to wear anything regarding the Yankees in front of our pit boss, Joanne, a true Red Sox fan.

Day two was to be a washout according to the forecast. I let the kids know, but they agreed they wanted to come back and get wet and muddy. Spoken like true high power shooters! Unfortunately, we did have to postpone the shooting event until the following Sunday because of the weather was too severe. Though luck was on our side and the next Sunday was beautiful.

On the firing line, we had one coach with every two shooters. Coaches on the line were not just any coach; all of them were either masters or high masters. Many of them are Distinguished or very close to becoming Distinguished. The coaches ran in ages from 17 to retired military, with many other talented individuals in between. The shooters stayed with their coach throughout the day, both on the line and in the pits. The kids and coaches were able to establish a bond with each other, and they also had an opportunity to hear some war stories from the coaches. The pits are a great place for this. Relays one and two went to the line, and three and four to the pits. Mike Schunemann ran the line while coaches worked with relay one and support staff helped relay two with scoring and safety.

After jackets were fitted and equipment sorted out the firing began. It was hard to tell who had the bigger smiles, the juniors shooting or the coaches, as the targets came up and down with the spotters in the black most of the time. The juniors were instructed in slow prone, rapid prone, rapid sitting and our all-time favorite, offhand.

Lunch time came and so did the canteen truck. We were running behind so I told everyone it was just going to be a 10 minute break. This is where the coaches showed the juniors how it was possible to eat a whole hot-dog and a slice of pizza in record time, or how to eat and score at the same time without getting the score card dirty.

While one relay was on the line getting instructions from their coaches, the others were in the pits learning target etiquette from the best pit boss in the area, Joanne Mallott. She pulls no punches and instructs her pullers to make the life of the shooter very enjoyable. We even had one comment from a junior on our comment sheets saying that their favorite part of the clinic was pulling targets.

As the day ended and all firing was completed, both the juniors and their coaches came back to the club house to be greeted by parents and receive their certificates from CMP. The club also donated several T-shirts that were presented to the top three male and female shooters of the day. Comment sheets were handed out to all the shooters and coaches and the request I saw most was, “to do more shooting!” 95% wanted to come back and shoot across the course and most were interested in participating in a junior program.

All I can say is that I was impressed by the attitudes and abilities of these young men and women, and I hope they all do come back. If they do, the sport will be kept alive for many, many more years.

It was a GREAT two weekends for all!