Between The Berms: USA vs. The World

Oct 5, 2011

The U.S. contingent invaded Rhodes, Greece last week to compete in the triennial IPSC World Shoot which began on Monday and run through this Saturday. Every three years the various regions of the International Practical Shooting Confederation, like the United States, gather in the host country to see which national teams, as well as individual shooters, are among the best in the world.
Members of the Women's Open, Standard and Production teams take part in the opening ceremonies of the IPSC World Shoot XVI. Photo courtesy Julie Golob.
Team USA, which includes nearly all the top names from the practical shooting world, is a clear favorite to win a medal, if not the gold medal, in all the divisions in which the U.S. is fielding a team. Individual shooters are also favored to win medals. As USPSA President Michael Voigt explained at USPSA's national championships two weeks ago, the last time representatives from the more than 85 regions met in competition the United States shooters covered an entire banquet table with the trophies and medals they won leaving no place for them to place their empty celebratory beer bottles. Fortunately there was plenty of open space on the tables of other nations giving our team lots of options for their empties. One team that flew in to cradle of democracy with their game on was the USA's Women's Production squad made up of S&W's Julie Golob, SureFire's Maggie Reese, Springfield's Kippi Leatham and CZ's Sara Dunivin. These women just came out of the STI USPSA National Handgun Championships where, instead of approaching the match as opponents, they worked together as a team and used the Nationals as an opportunity to practice their team communication and stage analysis. Their squad during Nationals was one of the smallest but also certainly one of the most enthusiastic as evidenced by their constant lighthearted interaction with the range officers - a tactic they are no doubt employing in Greece. So tight is this group that they even came up with their own shirts.
Gemini's mock up of the Women's Production Team hoodie design.
With a little help from a designer friend, support from 'Mr. Safariland' Scott Carnahan - the one guy, outside of maybe husbands and boyfriends, who does the most to support and promote women shooters - and some fast work by Gemini Custom Apparel, our Women's Production Team has one of the coolest hoodies. No word yet if you'll be able to get one of these hoodies for yourself but you can order a t-shirt with the 'Women's Production Team USA' design from Julie G's online shop. Another team dynamic worth watching, assuming we actually could, is that of the Team USA Junior Open squad. Made up of Ben Thompson, the two-time USPSA Junior Open National Champion, Nic Neel, Blake Manning and Shane Coley, these guys are gunning to defend Team USA's gold medal win in the last World Shoot with hopes of expanding the previous team's margin of victory. The only thing in their way might be, well, IPSC itself. USPSA's past experience in World Shoots has proven that IPSC officials can be, um, aggressive in applying the international rules to U.S. shooters. And whether it's to keep the U.S. 'honest' or get in the heads of our shooters, surviving the World Shoot without being disqualified can end up being a challenge. Fortunately our Juniors aren't likely to fall prey to IPSC mind games because one of them, Shane Coley, has been in more intimidating places. Coley is PV2 Coley of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and earlier this year returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. As the most senior of the shooters and the one with the most international experience, Shane is going to be the de facto captain of the squad and the one to keep them focused should IPSC officials feel the need to challenge the U.S. Juniors. But isn't that exactly what you'd expect from the USAMU? Results from the competition are out but a little hard to follow, especially because they do not include national affiliation. You might find more relevant updates from your favorite shooters' Facebook pages.
Modified guns come in many forms including this 'Modified Megatron' owned by Rico Gonzalez Papa.
Among the results you'll find those for the Modified division. In lay terms, Modified is a size restricted Open gun and Team USA is being represented in the division by SureFire's Barry Dueck, Springfield's Rob Leatham, JVDynamics' JoJo Vidanes and STI's Michael Voigt. However this is the last time you'll see these four competing in the Modified division because on Saturday during the IPSC General Assembly the organization voted to eliminate the division as of January 1, 2012. While not as large a division as Open, Standard or Production, Modified does have a loyal following in a number of countries. In a Facebook group set up for Modified shooters, Voigt argued that, "Deleting Modified is ridiculous. There are more Modified shooters than Revolver shooters at World Shoot, but should anyone mention deleting Revolver division?" Voigt pointed out that he had "yet to hear of a good reason to delete the division". However his argument, and those of die-hard Modified shooters fell on deaf ears during the vote.
One vote that did go our way however was that for who would serve as the host country for the 2014 World Shoot. Despite being what many would consider 'robbed' the last time this vote was held, the Universal Shooting Academy in Frostproof, Fla. moved forward with their own bid to host. While we don't yet know the final vote count, we do know that the United States won and USPSA will have home court advantage at the next World Shoot. That should make things a little bit easier for all of us when it comes to following the day-to-day action and how our shooters are faring. - Paul Erhardt, Editor, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network Got shooting sports news? Send us an email at info@shootingwire.com.