QUINCY, ILL. -- Not many people know about the rifle range under the stage at Quincy Junior High School.
But believe it or not, it's the home to an Illinois State High School Championship team.
The team is the 2012 Illinois state champion and now they're headed to nationals. But they're doing it all on their own.
A couple of times a week, the eight varsity members of the Quincy High School Rifle team make their way to the shooting range and practice their marksmanship on targets that are about an inch and a half in diameter. All of that practice has paid off as they were crowned Illinois State High School champions earlier this month. It's as much of a team effort as it's an individual effort and it's as much of a mental game, as it's actually lining up the target and squeezing the trigger.
"It's an individual thing with the mental aspect of it, but as a team, you're all trying to hold each other together as a team. So if someone gets angry on the line or something like that, you've got another team member help out and gets calm, cool and collected so we can go back up and compete very well," said rifle team member Ben Kuhn.
Kuhn is the only senior on this year's team. He said what goes into being a successful team member not only comes from practicing, but also the direction of Coach Jim Holtman.
Holtman has been the coach for the last 11 years. And during that time, he's had more then one team be crowned champion. He said the team takes their practice and their matches seriously and are getting ready for their nationals.
"When they challenge each other to beat one another, they work harder at what they do everyday and the match is nothing more then an extension of practice. You have to do everything in practice exactly as you expect to do in a match of you get a different result," Holtman said.
The team is self funded, meaning they have to raise their own money to compete and to buy their jackets, pants, shoes, guns and ammo. They get no money from the school district. And they still manage to bring home championships. Now they're ready to move from the state level to the national level hoping to add more championships to their resume.
Right now the rifle team is raising money for their expenses.
There is a way you can donate and the money donated now will be matched by three dollars for every dollar donated.
You can log onto www.scholasticshootingtrust.org and from there you can follow the prompts to donate to the Quincy High School Rifle Team.
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