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| The Army’s Major Mike Anti gave the conference keynote address. Anti won an Olympic silver medal in Athens in the men’s three-position rifle event.
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If the CMP knows one thing, it’s how to start things off with a bang. Each year, the National Matches are kicked off with a First Shot Ceremony, where a ceremonial first shot of the matches is fired. This year, as the CMP hosted the National Youth Shooting Sports Leadership Conference, the CMP arranged for conference goers to participate in a John C. Garand Match on Friday, October 8th to welcome them to the conference. Things began with a bang and the participants had a blast.
The 2004 National Youth Shooting Sports Leadership Conference took place at Camp Perry, Ohio on 8-10 October. The conference is a bi-annual affair with its companion, the National Shooting Sports Coaches Conference, taking place at Colorado Springs in odd-numbered years. This year’s conference attracted 100 youth shooting leaders and coaches from around the country.
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| Dan Durben, coach of the USA Paralympic Shooting Team gave a presentation on shooting sports opportunities for the disabled.
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The purpose of the conference was about fun and, more importantly, about advancing the skills of youth shooting coaches. To do this, the CMP and its partner organizations, USA Shooting and the NRA, offered an agenda of presentations featuring the 2004 Olympics
Athens silver medalist Mike Anti and Olympic shooting coach Dave Johnson and a presentation on the Paralympics and shooting opportunities for the disabled by Athens Paralympic shooting coach Dan Durben. Other presentations were given by the NRA’s Marcus Raab and H.Q. Moody, USA Shooting’s Martin Edmondson, the CMP’s Gary Anderson, Duane Tallman and various state junior directors from around the country.
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| Olympic rifle coach David Johnson described how he and the very successful USA Olympic Rifle Team prepared for the Athens Games.
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The conference included a full agenda of presentations from many other youth shooting experts. The central principle of the conference was to provide a place for those who wish to see youth shooting thrive to get together and share what they are doing, how they are succeeding, even what they have learned not to do, so that they can share these experiences and help other conference attendees do even more to grow youth shooting.
A highlight of this year’s event was a keynote speech by Olympic silver medalist Mike Anti. Major Anti, who is assigned to the U. S. Army Marksmanship Unit, talked about how he overcame many challenges on his road to Olympic success. Anti and other presenters provided many fascinating details about the Olympic competitions including eye-witness accounts of the infamous crossfire fired by Matt Emmons.
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| Group discussions on gun safety topics sought to find improved ways to achieve an even better gun safety record for shooting.
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Marsha Beasley, coach of the WVU rifle team and a member of the CMP Board of Directors, conducted a breakout session that focused on gun safety and new ideas that could be used to make our already safe sport even safer. The attendees split up into groups and came up with some provocative ideas that could soon become reality.
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| Nebraska State Junior Director Mike Jochum told conference attendees how BB guns can be accurized for optimum competition performance.
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On the Saturday of the conference, attendees were treated to a classic Lake Erie clambake, complete with clams steamed on the beach, homemade chowder and grilled chicken. The informal setting gave the conference attendees a chance to relax and enjoy the camaraderie that becomes a part of everyone’s love affair with the shooting sports.
Next year’s conference will be hosted by USA Shooting at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in early October 2005. If you are involved in junior shooting, plan to attend one of these conferences. |
