Collegiate Shooting and Scholarships

[TheCougar]

I’m looking for anyone who has gone down the path, either personally or as a parent, of collegiate shooting scholarships and competitions. My son is in high school and I’m trying to make him competitive for a service academy and/or scholarship via shooting sports. Besides 4H, I’m wondering how to train and compete. I’m coming at this with basically zero knowledgeable, so no input is too basic.

 

[Jstumbaugh]

Does your school offer shooting sports? Its becoming more popular in upstate NY here.

 

[sodaksooner]

Not much to offer, but I did shoot collegiately for our Naval ROTC team. Many, Many years ago. I had the scores to shoot for the university team, but didn't want to make the time commitment. At that time it was a club team and no money was available other than for travel. That said, most team personnel were ROTC of some sort and were already on scholarship for that.

The national guard in SD used to have a shooting sports program for HS shooters. They provided target rifles and ammunition and all we had to do was show up and shoot. We actually had a 50' smallbore range in our HS, which was shared with the local national guard unit. Don't know how that was set up but it is still the same way there many years later. We also had a rifle league similar to bowling leagues that we shot weekly during the winter.

Maybe check into similar programs in your state.

FWIW, shooting skills arent even looked at when going into ROTC or the service academies. Only thing all the above got me was 2nd high score on the KD course for our basic school company and a pat on the back! The guy that beat me was a prior enlisted sniper who had served in Beirut in the early 80's and had many "confirmed" kills. Good dude though.

 

[TheCougar]

Does your school offer shooting sports? Its becoming more popular in upstate NY here.

We are homeschool and under VA law, we get the privilege of paying taxes but cannot participate in school programs. its awesome.

 

[TheCougar]

Not much to offer, but I did shoot collegiately for our Naval ROTC team. Many, Many years ago. I had the scores to shoot for the university team, but didn't want to make the time commitment. At that time it was a club team and no money was available other than for travel. That said, most team personnel were ROTC of some sort and were already on scholarship for that.

The national guard in SD used to have a shooting sports program for HS shooters. They provided target rifles and ammunition and all we had to do was show up and shoot. We actually had a 50' smallbore range in our HS, which was shared with the local national guard unit. Don't know how that was set up but it is still the same way there many years later. We also had a rifle league similar to bowling leagues that we shot weekly during the winter.

Maybe check into similar programs in your state.

FWIW, shooting skills arent even looked at when going into ROTC or the service academies. Only thing all the above got me was 2nd high score on the KD course for our basic school company and a pat on the back! The guy that beat me was a prior enlisted sniper who had served in Beirut in the early 80's and had many "confirmed" kills. Good dude though.

Not much to offer, but I did shoot collegiately for our Naval ROTC team. Many, Many years ago. I had the scores to shoot for the university team, but didn't want to make the time commitment. At that time it was a club team and no money was available other than for travel. That said, most team personnel were ROTC of some sort and were already on scholarship for that.

The national guard in SD used to have a shooting sports program for HS shooters. They provided target rifles and ammunition and all we had to do was show up and shoot. We actually had a 50' smallbore range in our HS, which was shared with the local national guard unit. Don't know how that was set up but it is still the same way there many years later. We also had a rifle league similar to bowling leagues that we shot weekly during the winter.

Maybe check into similar programs in your state.

FWIW, shooting skills arent even looked at when going into ROTC or the service academies. Only thing all the above got me was 2nd high score on the KD course for our basic school company and a pat on the back! The guy that beat me was a prior enlisted sniper who had served in Beirut in the early 80's and had many "confirmed" kills. Good dude though.

I’ve been poking around the NRA site trying to find information. So far I haven’t found anything useful, like a list of local clubs, etc.

correct on the ROTC and service academies, however they look for athletics and extra curricular activities, and it’s a good back up for getting a normal scholarship.

 

[ND_Hooligan]

FWIW, shooting skills arent even looked at when going into ROTC or the service academies. Only thing all the above got me was 2nd high score on the KD course for our basic school company and a pat on the back! The guy that beat me was a prior enlisted sniper who had served in Beirut in the early 80's and had many "confirmed" kills. Good dude though.

Shooting skills can be looked at though to get an appointment to the service academies. The service academies have NCAA rifle teams and recruit a select few each year which also means an appointment to the academy. My daughter was recruited hard by the Army to attend West Point based off of her shooting skills, but she chose to shoot for another DI University instead.

 

[Rich M]

I used to shoot on an NRA team.

 

[WCB]

Are there any trap ranges around you? Get him in a league there. He can network and normally a decent club will have a couple guys that do big shoots and would have recommendations for you. There has to be a state association you could contact. Just google the crap out and start calling. Or just start entering him in shoots either locally or nearby states.

 

[Bassman]

I shot competitively at the collegiate level in the shotgun disciplines (trap, skeet, sporting clays, etc.). Did both ACUI and SCTP events as well as other regional collegiate events. We competed against the military academies who run pretty solid programs.

Speaking of the shotgun sports specifically, the level of collegiate backing from an NCAA type organization is fairly limited and scholarship opportunities were limited to a handful of schools. Most programs we competed against were funded via grants (eg. NRA grants). Happy to discuss further if helpful.

 

[Dos XX]

Scroll down to Virginia for contact info.

AIM4ATA.com > CONTACT

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

NAIA also has shooting sports teams. My daughter is attending Concordia University in Nebraska (CUNE) and they have a very successful shooting team.

 

[sconnieVLP]

Look for clubs that have three and four position smallbore in their description, those are the disciplines that will have true collegiate teams. I did a quick search for that in VA and came up with a few potential results.

I was on a county-ran team through middle and high school and shot matches across the Midwest then shot on a club team for part of college. If he’s already in HS you need to get him started RFN because he’s behind the power curve. The kids that used to whoop me were the ones whose parents homeschooled them for the express intent of being able to shoot more and had been doing so for years.

 

[wesfromky]

What shooting discipline? And how good are they at it currently? I believe Olympic air rifle/small bore is probably the most widespread. I would look for schools with academic programs that they want to peruse and that also have a rifle team. Reach out to a couple of the coaches and see what they say about the best way to get a paid education via shooting.

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