The American Legion Junior Shooting Sports Program teaches youth rifle safety and procedure and lets children participate in an Olympic skill sport while foster-ing healthy competition. All interested youths under 18 years old (or high school seniors no older than 20) are welcome, regardless of gender or physical ability. Shooters are trained to use a .177 air rifle, and levels vary from beginners learning safety basics to winnersof the Legion-affiliated National Championship, which consists of regional champs competing in shoulder-to-shoulder match.
1 Oct - John J. Morris Post 62 Air Rifle team came in 5th place out of 11. That means Post 62 beat 6 JROTC schools - not bad for a bunch of first ti
mers and one old timer. Our average age is 12 years old for our 5 young ladies on the shooting team. Their names are: Grace; 17, Isabella; 12, Dagney; 12, Emmaline; 10, and Sophia; 10. Only Grace had prior experience from before Covid. The rest; this was their first competition. Outstanding!
And we were the only all Annie Oakley team. The rest had mixed-sex teams. Their average age is 16.
The top team; Tombstone scored 1922 with 27 bullseyes while John J. Morris scored 1719 with 19 bullseyes. We are definitely in the game.
We exceeded our wildest expectation in finishing 5th against all JROTC experienced teams from Tombstone, Sunny Slope, Flowing Wells (3 teams, Deer Valley (2 Teams), Marcos DeNiza, and Rio Rico (2 Teams).
The next competition is at Cesar Chavez HS Army JROTC on October 29. We hope to possibly take 2 teams.
All in all, it was a great American Legion Post 62 day. We finished up with 3 hour tour of the Pima Air and Space Museum. The parents and shooters loved that. Rod, Debbie and I did not get home until 7 pm from Tucson. It was a long day.
More pictures are on the website in the Photo Gallery.