QUINCY, ILL. -- They may not get any fire truck rides through town showing off their hardware, but a local sporting team can brag about being state champions.

The Quincy High School Rifle Team is the top rifle team in the state of Illinois.

Little is known about the Rifle Team, but that doesn't discourage its members from doing what they do best.

Matthew Arnold says, "I've not played really any other sport so, this is the one thing I really am good at."

Matthew Arnold is just a freshman who joined the rifle team last fall.

Arnold says, "I came in here shooting...not really well at all, but I kept progressing and I just practiced a lot, really."

In most sports, practice may make perfect, but on the rifle team, practice makes precision, and precision makes perfect. Matthew Arnold will continue on the rifle team for the rest of his high school career. At the end of it, he may very well end up with a scholarship in this sport. He has qualified to be on the Illinois team for the NRA Championship. This team is made up of the best shooters in the state. That event takes place in June. Matthew's not alone on his team. All nine members are state champions.

Coach Jim Holtman says, "through the season, we shoot postal matches where we shoot targets here and mail them off to be scored. There's about eight that shoot in the precision class."

That type of event is done eight times a year. QHS's rifle team is undefeated. Once a year, the eight teams get together for what's called a shoulder to shoulder match. These students won that match too.

Holtman says, "Also, we qualified for the national championship in Ohio in late June. We shot on an at large qualifying score to qualify for that."

Ben Kuhn says, "I think it's a really good honor. All of us have been working very hard to obtain this goal. Beginning of the year, we weren't shooting very well. We were struggling at away matches. We pulled it back together at the last three matches and ended up winning so we're really excited."

What makes this story even better is the fact that the rifle team's funding was completely cut from the Quincy School District's budget at the end of last school year. Since then, funding has come in mostly through donations.

Coach Holtman says, "I don't think that our ability to win whatever level of competition we do has anything to do with funds. It has to do with attitude."

And with a winning attitude like this team has, it's no wonder this traveling trophy is finally back in the Gem City.

The traveling trophy was last in Quincy in 2006.

Coach Jim Holtman also told KHQA he usually starts the school year with more than 40 kids on the rifle team, but it always dwindles down to just a handle of students who are serious about it.

We mentioned the funding for the rifle team is cut, so it relies heavily on donations and grants.

A thousand dollars was recently donated to the team from the Elizabeth Colt Foundation.

That thousand was matched locally by John Blickhan.

Coach Holtman also says the Winchester Corporation donated a nice raffle item that brought in $6000.00 for the group.