Sheldon, Iowa — NCC’s sport shooting team held their media day Monday, September 14th at 5:30 pm at Rock Valley.
Head Coach Brian Lauck says the program was started in response to a request from some NCC students.
(as said) “we had a couple students that were looking to put it together. I think it was 2019 was our first spring year.”
Lauck says Sport Shooting is a rapidly growing sport, especially here in Iowa.
(as said)“yeah, Iowa has one of the largest student athletes in the shooting sports programs in the country.” Lauck says, “They’ve been doing it for, I believe eight to ten years, and then the two year colleges like NCC, there is I believe thirteen schools that are now offering.”
He tells how the schedule for opponents was set up.
(as said) “They had the state broken into two different regions, They have the west and the east regions, and we are in the west region. We compete against two year colleges in that region.”
Team members come from all program offerings at NCC
(as said) “Yeah it’s nice, it’s good for the student athletes too because then they can meet people that are not just in their courses. It gets them out there so they can meet new people. That’s always a good thing.” Lauck says.
Lauck says safety is a main component of the program.
(as said) “We make sure that all the guns are in working condition. Never loaded until they are up at the line, preparing for a call for a bird. The firearms are not stored on campus, they have a place in town where they store all the firearms, and then, with COVID this year, everything is virtual. So we’re making sure athletes are healthy and don’t have any issues…Safety is always our main concern, everything we do has got that.”
Team member, Caden Berte from Bancroft, is in the ICW program at NCC. He informed us how meets are set up for competition.
(as said) “During a meet we have our squads basically, and we shoot 50 at each house, so a total of 100 birds for each meet.”
Due to COVID 19, meets are done virtually.
Berte has been apart of shooting sports since high school.
(as said)“Actually, I shot in high school, before I came to college here. I shot all four years for Bishop Garrig in Algona, and then, when I came to school here, the trap team was already started so I decided to join.”
Sam Vaske is also in the ICW program, and he explains what practice for the team is like.
(as said) “Normally we practice twice a week, Monday and Wednesday, and it can really just depend for how long, because some days we just go and shoot then head out, or we can get our rounds in and then we play a couple games with the coach, and that can last a few hours, but that’s not too terrible, normally just about two hours for practice.”
Vaske then describes the firearms used by the team.
(as said) “There’s a lot of different types that are used, but some of us use break aparts, some of us just use like Remington Shotguns, stuff like that. It’s wide variety.”
Vaske didn’t begin team shooting until he came to NCC.
(as said) “Well when I was in high school I never really did the trap shooting team, at Garrigan. I always went off with my buddy and, he was a member of the league at home, so I would always shoot with him a few times, but as far as the team I haven’t really done it. I’ve hunted with my dad and some buddies, but nothing too major.”
Carmen Vermeer is from Rock Valley and is apart of the nursing program at NCC. She describes how lineups are put together for competition.
(as said) “Normally who we practice with, so like, my squad is these three people or four people and then we always just shoot in the order, just because we are used to the order. Like Caden said earlier, our meets are all virtual, so we all have them at Rock Valley, a gun club, so we don’t actually have to go to the things this year.”
Carmen told us about her shooting sports background.
(as said) “I was always raised with kind of like a hunting background, but my brothers did trap shoot, practically started the trap shoot in Rock Valley, and then eighth grade through my senior year, I was in trap.”
A scholarship was offered through the shooting program, and Caden Berte was the recipient this year of the Ned DeBore Memorial Scholarship
(as said)“Actually I received the Ned DeBore family trap shooting scholarship this year, through the college, and I just told them about my background and how involved I was with sports shooting, and I guess they selected me and I’m very grateful and thankful for that.”
For more information on the shooting sports program. Click here
