Concordia in Seward to start shotgun program

[tachyonbb]

The Outdoor Club at Concordia University, Nebraska, is expanding its outreach this year by hosting a variety of events and recruitment activities, including a trap and skeet shoot held at the Oak Creek Sporting Club on Sunday, Oct. 29. The club is forming a collegiate competitive shooting team using grant money from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

“Having a collegiate shooting team on campus will promote the shooting sports among our student body, the local community and nationwide through students and alumni,” Dr. Joel Helmer wrote in the team’s grant proposal. Helmer is a professor of geography and chair of the Social Science Department at Concordia. He also serves as the Outdoor Club adviser and shooting coach, along with Dr. Tim Huntington, assistant professor of biology.

I know that Midlands has a team as does UNO.  UNL has an official (NCAA) rifle team.  It is great to see the universities to get involved in the shooting sports.

[bkoenig]

Good news.  The more young people involved in shooting sports the better.

[bullit]

I can tell you this...they better have a lot of body bags..... (said some liberal nut job)

[Dan W]

UNL also has a Shotgun sports team/club that is associated with Lincoln Trap and Skeet

[AAllen]

This will be the first year for Midland's team, it is one of only two programs in the US where a shooting sport is a full varsity program

UNL's team is considered very good, with the Women's winning or placing at many competitions.

UNO though they have a club team that I hear practices, due to not having any strong financial support is not able to travel to many tournaments.

Concordia is helping to make certain the sport remains strong and grow here in Nebraska.

My daughter is visiting colleges right now and Doane told her they have a team, but I have not been able to find any info on it we will learn more on the campus visit.

I have also heard there are some Students that have started a program at Wayne State and there are a couple that are talking about it at Creighton.  It just takes one to decide to make the push to get others to sign on and most schools will grant the club sport status.

[tachyonbb]

A little clarification.  The NCAA has a full rifle program as one of its sports. The course of fire is 10m air rifle and 3 position rimfire.  Many schools offer scholarships for this program.  There are between 30 and 40 universities that offer rifle as an NCAA full sport (i.e. NCAA compliance requirements).  The UNL team is a women's team only, some school have both mens and womens teams and some schools have mixed teams.  All teams compete against each other regardless of gender.  (the UNL decision helps with title 9 compliance).  UNL is currently ranked 9th in the nation and typically places in the top 10.

The shotgun sports is not an NCAA sponsored sport. It is organized by the ACUI (Association of College Unions International).  They have american trap, skeet, sporting clays, five stand, international trap and skeet.  There are  two programs which offer scholarships (that I know of) in the shotgun sports. They are Lindenwood University in Missouri and Midlands in Fremont. About 60 universities competed in the 2013 championships.   UNO did not compete in 2013. In 2012 they placed 10th in trap. Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Fr. Hays State, Central Missouri, Missouri, Colorado State and Wyoming all have competitive teams in plains area.

[AAllen]

There are  two programs which offer scholarships (that I know of) in the shotgun sports. They are Lindenwood University in Missouri and Midlands in Fremont. About 60 universities competed in the 2013 championships.   UNO did not compete in 2013. In 2012 they placed 10th in trap. Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Fr. Hays State, Central Missouri, Missouri, Colorado State and Wyoming all have competitive teams in plains area.

There are several other Universities that compete in local or regional meets that because they are club teams without financial support from their schools can not afford to do much travel (the club/team members pay their own way).  Also there are several schools that offer scholarships even though it is a club sport, and example since I do not have the list in front of me is Texas A&M.  Most of those are not scholarships provided with actual University funds but with funding from booster clubs and alumni.  For those with kids that are starting the college look around that compete - there is scholarship money out there for this.  Of course there is always the question of who ends up paying for the trap and shells (some of the teams actually help with these expenses) which everyone that has played with the sport knows can easily break the bank. 

It's a good thing that even though they are not cheap a good shotgun will last for years before having any major issues.