Thousands of dollars in college scholarship money will be on the line when the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Youth Shooting Sports Program’s 19th season culminates in late May, but before the shooters and teams reach that point, there are regional shoots for teams to establish a spot in the junior and senior state championship tournaments. Four weeks of regionals at the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation Shooting Sports Complex in Jacksonville start this Friday and Saturday with teams from a loaded North Region squaring off.
Competition begins at 9 a.m. both days. About 5,700 students in grades 5-8 in the juniors and grades 9-12 in the senior division will compete over the next four weeks.
The top 16 teams in each junior and senior regional will advance to the state tournament round May 29-30. Also, individuals scoring a perfect 25 of 25 in the junior division or 50-for-50 in the senior level will earn spots in the Tournament of Champions shootoff. Seniors will be competing for more college scholarship money with the last shooter standing on May 30.
West Region juniors will shoot on May 1, followed by the West seniors on May 2. The South region has the weekend of May 8-9, and the always-strong East Region is scheduled for May 15-16. The Memorial Day weekend (May 22-23 this year) is traditionally left open and provides a makeup day or two should weather affect the regularly scheduled regionals. The shooting goes on as long as there is only rain; with lightning in the area, there will be delays.
And the forecast for the opening weekend was sketchy earlier this week.
“It’s not looking favorable at all, it’s looking pretty rough,” Steve Johnson, AYSSP’s coordinator, said Monday. “As long as it doesn’t lightning, we’re OK. We’ll shoot in the rain. Once we see lightning within that 5-mile range, we shut down and stay down until 30 minutes after the last lightning report … At the end of the day, we want no one hurt.”
Bald Knob, last year’s senior state champion, returns a strong team to lead the North squads. Two Bald Knob squads took second and third place at the AGFF’s “Mallards for Marion” benefit tournament on April 10. Smackover won the senior team division. Jonesboro, always deep with strong teams from the East, was the junior squad winner.
Case Hardin from Mountain Home’s senior squad outlasted two other shooters who had joined him with perfect 50s during the tourney portion to win Grand Champion Tournament Shooter. Their shoot-off lasted seven rounds. Hardin’s perfect day earned a lifetime hunting and fishing license from the AGFF.
Based on scores and other reports he’s heard from shooting tournaments this spring, Johnson says this year’s competition may be as wide open as ever. But he also figures Bald Knob will again be in the mix beginning with this weekend’s regional.
“Oh yeah, they have a strong team coming back and will be a force to be reckoned with. Aaron (Throckmorton) is an excellent coach and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him and what he does for his team and his kids,” Johnson said. “He actually participated in an advanced coaches school that we’re doing with (U.S. Olympian from Greenbrier) Kaylee Browning two weeks ago.”
Johnson has introduced a new “advanced coaching” level for AYSSP. By June 16 coaches from across the state will be recognized as advanced coaches. The purpose? “So if somebody in their area has an issue or a question and we’re not close enough or don’t have time to get over to them soon enough, they can call these coaches and ask for help to get them through this.”
“As Game and Fish and Youth Shooting Sports, I want to do more and Game and Fish wants to give more to provide our coaches a better background and more information in coaching up these kids,” Johnson said. “We’ve now got a large number of colleges here in the state that are starting to offer shooting sports, and we want to make sure our coaches help prepare these kids to go on to college and have that opportunity to shoot for their school at the collegiate level.”
Johnson says five in-state colleges are offering full shooting sports programs, and three others are looking to start programs in the coming months. Programs are underway at the University of the Ozarks, Southern Arkansas University, University of Arkansas-Cossatot, Arkansas State University and Arkansas-Monticello. UA-Rich Mountain and Harding are among two schools that have had conversations with Johnson, and Arkansas-Fayetteville has shooting sports on a club level.
That’s where the college scholarship money, with up to $7,500 going to the winning senior team, comes in, Johnson said, and now there’s more opportunity to stay in state and shoot instead of looking beyond Arkansas’s borders.
The competition format for AYSSP has not changed. Junior teams will shoot 25 shots per shooter, up to five team shooters, for its team qualifying score for state, with a maximum 125 available. Seniors will shoot 50 shots per shooter, with a maximum of 250 targets per team available. The state tournament format for both divisions consists of 25 shots per shooter and teams competing head-to-head in a tourney bracket.
“We’re up another 100 kids this year,” Johnson said of AYSSP’s overall numbers. “We’re up in new teams, up in total teams, up in coaches. Our program is continuing to successfully grow, and it’s due to the coaches that we have out there. More and more schools are coming on board, more programs in different areas that are just extremely excited to get this going for their kids. They see this as an asset for their schools and their kids’ success, even through colleges. They’re willing to now make this investment and get more kids involved.”
There is no admission charge for spectators at the shooting complex. Food and merchandise vendors are available throughout the tournament, and a gun raffle is held through the state tourney weekend. Archery and fishing stations will be available at the site during the state championship round only.
– Jim Harris, Managing Editor, Arkansas Wildlife Magazine