Contenders take aim as shooting sports regionals begin 

JACKSONVILLE — The defending state champion and plenty of contenders for this year’s Senior Division State Championship will tangle this weekend as the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Youth Shooting Sports tournaments kick off at the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation Shooting Sports Complex.

The East Regional is the first of four regions on tap, with juniors shooting on Friday starting at 9 a.m. and senior high competitors at 9 a.m. Saturday. Leading the way is Jonesboro Westside, which won its third state title last June. Other expected contenders from the East Region include Corning, Harrisburg, Cabot and Jacksonville. The East has 964 competitors (junior and senior divisions combined), 106 squads and 43 programs (some like Westside have three or more teams) spread across 13 fields at the complex.

“There’s not a team in the East that I would call easy to get past,” Steve Johnson, the AGFC’s new Youth Shooting Sports state coordinator, said. “It’s a very tough region, and they work hard.”

Johnson should know well how state champions operate. When he was teaching agriculture and coaching shooting sports at Huntsville schools, his seniors won the first YSS state title in 2007, followed by state championships in 2008 and 2010 and runner-up finishes in 2009 and 2011.

Johnson also coached at Hot Springs Lake Hamilton starting in 2015 and most recently was an elementary school teacher in Mountainburg when he saw the job was open for AGFC state coordinator.

“I’ve been in education for 31 years,” he said, “… and I thought this would be a great job, a great organization in the Game and Fish to work for. I was extremely fortunate in the interviews to be hired and lead the next run. Everything worked out right, and it was a great time to have a career charge. I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes next.”

He arrived at the agency in January with this year’s shooting sports plans already underway. “I just had to jump in and get going.” Johnson is the state’s only certified National Rifle Association Coach Schools-Shooting instructor since Chuck Woodson, who ran AGFC’s YSS program for many years, retired. The course is available to any prospective coach and covers such topics as the psychology behind shooting sports and setting up guns for different competitions.

“The best thing about this program is, it’s not how physically gifted someone is; a kid doesn’t have to be the fastest or the strongest to compete. I’ve had certain kids with medical conditions and they actually succeed in this program … It works for everyone,” he said.

Johnson, who has also instructed college shooting sports participants, has more plans for the program that he’s not ready to reveal, but does say, “We’re doing more to start linking up with the colleges, a really big push there. I’m excited about how we’re going to partner with them. Kids aren’t done shooting after high school. We get them prepared and ready to go.”

The North Region, which includes perennial contender Bald Knob in the senior division, will compete May 2-3, followed by the West Region on May 9-10 and the South Region on May 16-17. After a break for Memorial Day weekend, the top 64 qualifying teams from the regions by total score in both the junior and senior divisions will converge here May 30-31 for the state championship.

In what might be a preview of the YSS tournament, several contending squads entered the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation’s Trap Tournament earlier this month at the complex, with Bald Knob recording a 241 out of 250 attempts to win the senior division, edging Southwest Arkansas Leadheads by one clay pigeon. Manila’s senior squad was third with 231 out of 250. In the junior division, Cabot Red ran up a 223 score out of 250 attempts, Camden was second at 216 and South Side Bee Branch took third with a 207 score. Carson Nunnally of Manila was the top shooter.

In the YSS junior division up to five shooters per team get one round of 25 shots, with all five shooters contributing their scores to the final total. In the senior division, the five-person teams shoot two rounds of 25 shots. The top 16 squads in each region advance to the state finals.

Also, each region will be looking for the best shooter among all competitors. If a junior hits all 25 shots, or a senior connects on 50 of 50, they advance to their respective Champion of Champions event, held after the state finals May 30-31. In the last round, those perfect-score competitors will shoot at targets until only one shooter is left without missing a shot.

“This sets the stage for what the season is going to look like,” Jose Jimenez, the AGFC’s chief of the Recreational Shooting Sports Division, said of the tournament’s opening weekend. “We look at it as one big hurdle that will set the season and everything else is downhill. We’re excited about it, and after many months of preparation, it’s finally here.

“It’s an agency event, and you can see all the different (AGFC) divisions represented. This is a huge collaborative effort, and (like) the Archery in the Schools State Tournament, this is one of the biggest events in the agency. There’s a lot of pressure in that, and we look to be successful and perform.”

Admission to the five weekends is free, and there will be concessions on-site, including food trucks and new offerings such as Kona Ice and a Filipino ice cream truck. Also, an archery area and stocked fishing pond is available for participants.

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CUTLINES:

SHOOTING TARGET
Last year’s champions, Jonesboro Westside, hope to claim a fourth state title in the senior division of the Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program this year. AGFC photo.

STEVE
New Youth Shooting Sports Program Coordinator Steve Johnson, coached multiple state-champion trap teams before joining the AGFC. AGFC photo.

THINK SAFETY
Participants in the AGFC’s Youth Shooting Sports Program will hit the field beginning this Friday in their quest for a state championship title. AGFC photo.