The Tumwater High School Rifle Team concluded its season with its final championship match earlier this week, marking the end of months and months’ worth of training and competing. Throughout the season, the team showed continuous improvement and strong performances while shooting. Interviews with the top five standing shooters, including the team captain and coach highlight the preparation, discipline, and teamwork that shaped their year.
Season Highlights
The season began with a focus on relearning fundamentals, including stance, breathing control, and shot consistency after the off-season.
According to team members and coaches, early practices emphasized technique and repetition, while also teaching the newcomers. These repetitive practices contributed to huge score improvements as the season progressed.
Mid-season matches were also important for the development, since they created opportunities to adjust strategies and identify areas they needed to work on.
By the end of the season, the team had stronger scores and increased confidence, especially after winning against our rivals, Black Hills, in the last match before the championship.
Top Standing Shooters Reflect
The team’s top five standing shooters were key contributors to the season’s success, consistently delivering strong performances in matches; not just standing position. Each athlete highlights the importance of focus, teamwork, and practice, offering insight to how they improved and accepted the challenges thrown their way.
Claire Henson’s pride this season is split between getting first overall in the league standings by a fair margin, or her score of 274 points in the last 3 position match they had. She says she thinks it’s pretty cool to be the top shooter and finds it funny that even when she complains about having an off day, she is still carrying the team by 15 or 20 points. Henson’s motivation is knowing that she doesn’t need to be the best, which helps her keep going through mistakes without a large amount of frustration since she won’t be worried about perfection. She says she is in it for the love of the game. Henson’s favorite part of being on this team for the last 4 years has been having fun with the other team members. She says it will be hard to leave when she graduates and doesn’t think it’s hit her yet that she’ll be leaving this amazing sport. She also told me her freshman year was her first time even touching a rifle, so she is just naturally talented. She told me she will continue to do rifle shooting after high school, just maybe not as much or in the same style.
Savannah Smith says the most frustrating part of this season was not shooting what she usually does and the fluctuating changes in her scores. If she could relive one match, it would be the very first one, because she shot her highest, a 252. Smith wants this season to be remembered as her improvement from JV to Varsity. Something she has learned from the rifle team that applies outside of shooting is to not listen to those around you who just want you to fail, and to focus on what you know, not what others tell you.
Aiden Huckeba reflected on this season by saying he learned the importance of self-thoughts. How to focus and learn how your mind works can either hurt you or help you. His favorite memory of this season he never wants to forget is when the whole team went to Country Cousins after a match and half the team ordered a dish called Uncle Dick’s (a sandwich with pulled pork and onions). One thing he has improved on would be his positions in general. He says he now scores a lot better then when he first started, and has even improved since the fall. Huckeba’s most exciting moment was shooting a 247 on a target. He says this season was definitely fun, but he wishes more people would join.
Gabe Ilacqua said the hardest part about competing against top shooters from other schools in the championship match was the mental aspect of the sport- having to stay focused even when you’re nervous. He says that when he doubts himself when shooting, he takes it one shot at a time and focuses to the best of his ability, especially during high-stake matches. The most frustrating part of this season for him was losing against Black Hills in the championship because the whole team was really hoping to take that win. The team goal this year, according to Ilacqua, was mostly trying to build up the team and recruit more members, because they lost a lot of seniors last year. He said they are competing to get the highest scores possible, and it’s really competitive, but positive, as they expand the team. Outside of shooting, being on the rifle team has taught him patience and persistence. The people he has met while being on rifle are the things he will remember years from now, more so than just the people he goes to school with. He says he met a lot of great people through this sport.
Captain’s Perspective
Team captain Hunter Griggs said one of the team’s biggest strengths was its ability to stay disciplined and work together. In his leadership role, Griggs focused on encouraging teammates and keeping the morale strong during matches and practices alike.
The first interview question I asked him was how he would describe his role as captain since the team is already incredibly self-driven; he said he describes it as less of a driving force and more of a moral support role.
He said competing alongside teammates who are just as independent and focused as him is pretty easy because they do their own thing and all Hunter has to do is make sure they are supported and understand what they need to do. He occasionally helps them in their positions if needed.
When asked if being captain changed how he approached his own performance this season he said yes, because it gave him a higher goal to work towards.
One thing he’s learned from the team, rather than him teaching them, is that doing bad isn’t always the end of the world.
He says the moment this season that captures who his team is would be either the last match against Black Hills when they won, or the standing match; both capture how hard they’ve been working all year.
When they won against Black Hills, it was huge because it was the first time they beat them this year, and they won by a significant amount. Griggs said it showed how hard work can really pay off during a sport like this.
His three words to describe the team would be hardworking, self-motivated, and resilient.
Griggs said the hardest thing to improve on this year was not beating himself up when he didn’t do great during matches and practices.
Finally, his favorite match was the final match against Black Hills, not only because they won, but because he got his highest score of the year, a 257.
Coach’s Assessment
One of the team’s coaches, Coach Boerner, provided insight into both the performance and character of the athletes this year. According to Boerner, the team’s commitment, discipline, and willingness to support one another were central to their collective success.
Looking specifically at the championship last week, what stood out to Boerner was the unluckiness of lanes. This was the first match that they made the shooters randomly draw lanes, and at the Centralia Shooting Range there is definitely a preferred side with better lighting and backdrop. It was simply unlucky for four of the five THS shooters to get the bad side of the range. He also wanted me to highlight how outstanding Black Hills’ performance was.
This season not much really exceeded his expectations, since he’s been in this for 20 years. He usually goes into each season with higher expectations. One secret expectation he wanted to see done, the shooters did: JV beat another school’s Varsity team (which happened many times this year). Plus, Boerner wanted every shooter, both JV and Varsity to get a score above 200, and that also happened.
There are five coaches for the Tumwater High School rifle team, Coach Boerner, Coach Longmire, Coach Martin, Coach Huckeba, and Coach Johnson, but Coach Boerner is the only one that is a staff member at Tumwater High School. When asked what challenges he has being the only one rifle coach on site daily, he said it’s a big responsibility, because he also hosts the Rifle Club during club time on Fridays. Boerner did say it got easier to communicate with the team this year because they had a new app that allowed students to check their phones for times and dates instead of going to Boerner. He said that because of the SportsYou app communication has gone up, which keeps up averages, which results in placing numbers in matches. He said they go by score, not by seniority. Sometimes freshmen will get Varsity and kick out an experienced senior.
He said one of the challenges for him specifically is travelling to and from the range, because he can’t leave school until 2:40.
Finally he hopes students learn respect for firearms and how to handle them safely through this sport, but also patience, attention to detail, mental toughness, and how to have a short-term memory in terms of not letting a bad match or moment in your life keep you from doing your best.
Championship Match
The championship match on Tuesday, February 17th served as the final test of the team’s preparation. This championship contained the top 5 standing shooters on the teams of four different schools: Chehalis, Black Hills, Centralia, and Tumwater High School.
Participants from THS reported a competitive but focused atmosphere, with athletes concentrating on consistency and precision.
Although final results varied by the individual person, team members agreed the match reflected their progress over the course of the season.
Even though Tumwater lost to Black Hills, it was a strong conclusion to the training and competition schedule.
Conclusion
Overall, the season demonstrated how wonderfully the team developed in both performance and teamwork. Shooters and coaches alike commented on improvement, commitment, and collaboration as the main factors of the year. With the season complete, the team looks forward to future opportunities to continue building on this foundation.
