Junior Shooters

Posted by Junior Shooters

By Lawrence Taylor 

 The Pierre Junior Shooters from Pierre, S.D., came into the 2018 Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match (Daisy Nationals) looking for a threepeat performance, and they almost got it. While they hadn’t blown away the competition the last two years, they had shot well enough to win two Team  Championships  and  an  Individual  Aggregate National Championship. Everyone knew they again were the team to beat, and in a nail-biter, the Wyandotte County 4-H BB Team out of Kansas City, Kan., did just that — by a single point! 

When the figurative smoke cleared, Wyandotte County 4-H scored 2,474.4, and the Pierre Junior Shooters sat at 2,473.4. The Gallatin Valley Sharp Shooters out of Bozeman, Mont., placed third with 2,472.3. 

The Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match is a 5-meter, four position (standing, kneeling, sitting and prone) match held annually at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers, Ark., and it brings together the best BB gun shooters ages 8-15. These 5-person teams must qualify for the event by coming in first, second or third in a state NRA-sanctioned match. 

This year’s Match, held June 30-July 3, brought approximately 2,000 shooters, former champions, coaches and parents to Northwest Arkansas. They came from as far as Georgia, Oregon, Virginia, Wisconsin and South Texas. Most teams are created through the 4-H Shooting Sports Program, but any community, religious or outdoors educational organization can form a team as long as it follows the curriculum outlined by Daisy.  

The Daisy curriculum features hours of classroom gun-safety and education work prior to the youth ever touching a gun. In fact, before the shooting starts at the Daisy Nationals, each competitor must take a test covering gun safety and match rules, and their score on that test makes up 20 percent of their final score. This year 19 competitors made a perfect score on the test. 

Youth and coaches alike look forward to the Daisy Nationals and make the event the centerpiece to a summer vacation, but it takes hard work and determination from both kids and coaches to qualify. 

 “We practice together as a team and the coaches polish us, call the shots and help us out any way they can,” said Garret Dall, a member of the 2018 National Champion Wyandotte County 4-H Team. Dall, a well-seasoned shooter, placed second in the Individual Aggregate division in 2016. 

In addition to the five team members, two alternates can attend to take over should a shooter not be able to compete, and if you shoot as a team member one year you must shoot in the Champions division the next. After shooting as a Champion, shooters are allowed to again compete as a regular team member. This brings new, fresh youth shooters into the program every year, and these Champions and Alternates compete for National Championships in their own divisions. 

For 2018, 54 teams from across the nation competed for the National Championship. Many of the teams are regulars at the Daisy Nationals, like the Timber Beasts out of Oregon and the Awesome Possums hailing from Tennessee, and the local favorite O.Y.S.T (Ozark Youth Shooting Team) from Bentonville, Ark., who this year took on the moniker of Beni and the Bullseyes because the team consisted of one boy (Beni) and four girls. 

That’s another aspect of the Daisy Nationals that adds to its universal appeal – girls participate on the same playing field as boys, and often perform at a higher level. Many Individual Aggregate National Champions have been female. Former Olympic shooter Lydia Paterson won back in 2010, and this year Erica Berger from the Gallatin Valley Sharp Shooters took top individual honors. 

For the youth shooters this event is the culmination of many hours of hard work, and the competition is at the highest level. To win the Individual Aggregate National Championship, Berger beat the second place finisher by just one-tenth of a point (this second-place finisher was also a female). 

“We practice 10 months out of the year, three or four nights a week, three hours a night,” Berger said. “The best thing that my coach says to me is don’t take bad shots – if it doesn’t feel right, don’t take the shot.” 

Berger’s coach, Kevin Baisch, was honored for coaching youth BB gun shooters for 25 years this year and has attended the Daisy Nationals six times.  

“I am blown away every time I attend,” he said. “The Southern hospitality is second-to-none, and the folks making this happen are always a class act.”  

Again this year the Daisy Nationals saw a National Record attempt. When a shooter shoots all 10s – a perfect score – he or she is allowed to shoot for a National Record. Tony Stacy, a member of the Walton County out of Monroe, Ga., already held a National Record, with five additional perfect shots over and above his perfect score. This year he shot eight perfect shots after his perfect 10 to break his own record.  

As always, the 53rd annual event featured plenty of fun, action and emotion beyond the shooting competition. The Barter Bar, in which competitors bring items representing their states (which can include everything from homemade crafts and wildlife-related items to cans of “Potted Possum” meat and sports jerseys) and swap them with other competitors.  

Other events include a Parade of Champions at the opening ceremonies in which many team wears costumes or custom T-shirts of their own design. This year, Academy Sports + Outdoors sponsored the costume/theme and T-shirt design side contests and presented the winners with $500 gift cards. 

During the Opening Ceremonies, teams are paraded through the massive ballroom, their names are announced and they take the stage for photographs. It’s as festive a moment as many of the youth shooters have ever experienced and supports Daisy’s position to make this event a highlight of the year for these kids. Their hard work, focus and determination are rewarded.  

The Match also includes a Painted Gun contest. Each competitor must shoot the Daisy 499B Champion BB Gun, the most-accurate 5-meter competition BB gun in the world, and may decorate it any way they choose within the parameters set forth by the NRA. Many guns look as sharp as sports cars or follow a particular theme. First, second and third place winners were awarded Academy Sports + Outdoors gift cards in the amount of $300, $200 and $100 respectively. 

This year top honors in the painted gun contest was Jayson Kimberly from the Montgomery County Group Therapy team out of Conroe, Texas. It features a classic image of Red Ryder on a horse with vivid colors and a deep gloss.  

Each shooter shoots the Daisy Champion 499B, and it’s is not the Red Ryder that so many of us used when we took our very first shots. It’s a muzzle-loading lever action that shoots ragged holes at 5 meters.  

“These extra events, the painted gun contest and the costumes, are what separates the Daisy Nationals from other shooting competitions,” said Daisy Public Relations Director Lawrence Taylor. “Attend the event one time and you’ll see why this is the premier youth shooting event in the nation. It’s way more than just a shooting competition, as evidenced by teams that have attended every year for more than 20 years.  

“It’s a National Championship match with a focus on just the kids and providing an event they can remember fondly for the rest of their lives.” 

Daisy also inducts a longtime leader in the BB gun shooting sports into its Hall of Fame. This year, James Eberwein, who has been a coach in Kansas for more than 30 years and is responsible for expanding and growing the program throughout the Sunflower State, was inducted into this exclusive club.  

A final highlight of the event was an appropriate send off for a Daisy employee who has planned, organized and administered the event for the past 15 years, Denise Johnson. Known by competition BB gun shooters and coaches as the “BB Gun Lady,” she’s become a well-known figure in the industry and is much-loved by that community. She retires after 39 years with Daisy. 

“I started working with the Daisy Nationals in 1992,” Johnson said. “The best match we ever had was the 50th anniversary. We brought back the team that won the first match back in 1966. We also let all of the kids build their own guns, and we engraved them with their names. When they were walking down the hallway holding their guns I thought ‘Wow, that’s a family heirloom they’re going to pass down to their kids.’ It was just awesome.” 

Anyone who becomes involved in competition BB gun shooting and attends the event is instantly hooked, as evidenced by the number of 20-, 25- and 30-year coaches. While the program instills responsibility, control and focus on the shooter (especially for youth who have focus or attention issues), and to reach the National Championship takes many hours of hard work, this final event pays off with four days that are just for the shooters. In addition to the cheers and tears of competition, the fun and comradery creates lifelong memories.  

“Many people refer to Daisy as the gateway to the shooting sports,” Taylor said, “and it really is. According to a study conducted a few years ago, 80 percent of those who described themselves as outdoorsmen took their first shots with a Daisy. Fewer people are aware of the Daisy Nationals, but it really is the foundation for a lifelong love of shooting and shooting competition.” 

For more information on Daisy and the Daisy Nationals, go to www.daisy.com. For a comprehensive listing of winners, as well as thousands of images and other information on the event, go to www.dnbbgcm.com.

Categories: Airgun, Clubs & Teams, Events, Rifle
Tags: BB gun, competitive shooting, daisy bb gun, jr shooter, jr shooters, junior, junior camps, junior shooter, junior shooters, junior shooting camps, junior writers, juniors, kids, learn to shoot, learning to shoot, Olympics, plinking, shooting, shooting sports, usa shooting, youth shooting, youth shooting sports