North Carolina State University Athletics
2006-07 Rifle: A Championship Mentality
9/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Rifle
By Brandon Yopp
A championship mentality.
It’s the only logical mindset for NC State rifle head coach Keith Miller and his team to carry into the 2006-07 season. With two consecutive No. 19 final national rankings under its collective belt, the Wolfpack returns all eight team members from last season. That team finished second overall in the South Eastern Air-Rifle Conference (SEARC) behind league rival Birmingham Southern. With a powerful returning core, coupled with a solid incoming class of five, the red and white appear poised to make a serious run at a second SEARC crown this season. The Pack will also be competing as full-fledged members of the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) in addition to the SEARC.
Two-time SEARC individual champion senior Jennifer Marshall will return to help lead the squad. Alongside Marshall, fellow All-SEARC first-team members senior Matthew Gifford and junior Thomas Knight will resume their pivotal roles.
“We can’t say enough about what Jennifer, Matthew and Thomas have done for this team,” said Miller. “Jennifer has established a serious resume as one of the better air rifle performers in the country after collecting her second straight individual conference championship last year.
“Matthew Gifford was our top shooter, from top-to-bottom, last season, having led the team in more statistical categories than anyone else and winning the team MVP award. Add Thomas Knight into the mix and it’s not hard to understand why we were so successful. Jennifer, Matthew and Thomas have all been first-team all-conference selections the past two seasons, and if we really want to get things done this time around, we will need them to continue building upon their previous performances.”
Five other student-athletes will round out the returning squad: redshirt-freshman Sarah Jo Pleasants, sophomore Noel Keck, juniors Jenna Matino and Joel VandenEnde, and redshirt-junior Bill Reynolds. Miller stresses the importance of each members’ abilities on the team, noting that they all assist the squad with a valuable amount of depth and experience.
Of that group, Reynolds is clearly the most experienced. He continued to show marked improvement last season, finishing the year with a 557 air-rifle average. Matino competed in all but one event a year ago, and appears poised to take another leap in progress this season. Keck shot at all but three events last year, nailing down personal best scores of 563 in air-rifle and 544 in smallbore.
VandenEnde joined the roster late in the spring last season, competing in the final three air-rifle events, and firing a personal-best 551 score. Pleasants will look to get her feet wet this year after redshirting as a freshman.
Besides the veterans, five fresh faces join the Wolfpack’s hunt for success this season: Cameron Beam, Samantha Bullard, Tori Kostecki, Matt Moore and Katie Siegert.
Each of the freshmen have quality prep experience, allowing for additional depth and a solid young foundation to continue building upon once Gifford and Marshall exit at the end of the year.
“We’re very excited about our incoming crop of talent,” said Miller. “We brought in three quality shooters from the state of North Carolina, as well as one from neighboring Virginia. When scouting talent, we always look within our own state and regional area first, and we feel as though we secured some of the best talent around.”
All of the new team members will have an opportunity to compete and earn a participating role on the squad. Miller notes that with hard work and collegiate match experience, all four should eventually progress into essential cogs in the red and white arsenal.
“Katie is probably the strongest of the incoming shooters,” said Miller. “She is particularly strong in smallbore competition. She competed in a lot of prep matches under significant pressure, so she should adjust quickly to the rigors of shooting in college.
“Samantha has some air-rifle experience, but she has only shot smallbore over the past couple of years and that is really her strong suit. Our challenge will be getting her prepared for air-rifle.
“Matt brings a high-powered rifle background through years of shooting with the Sir Walter Gun Club. He understands most of the positions already. We will be working on getting him further adjusted in air-rifle, as well as getting him comfortable with kneeling during smallbore events.
“Cameron is another exciting talent that we’re looking forward to watching progress as he learns more about the sport. Our goal for his first year is getting him adjusted to shooting precision air-rifle and smallbore.
“Tori comes to the program with good experience in three position air-rifle. She competed in the highly competitive Georgia high school circuit, so match pressure will be nothing new to her. She just started competing in smallbore during her senior year of high school, but she has done at great job at progressing with it. We expect her to compete for the first team in air-rifle right from the start. Hopefully by the middle of the year, her smallbore abilities will equal her air-rifle talents. We’ll need her to do that if we are going to be as strong and deep a team as we’ll have to be in order to be competitive in the GARC.”
While nothing is ever guaranteed, the Wolfpack battalion seems to have all of the tools in place to continue making a name for itself on a prominent national circuit this season.
“We have finished in the top 20 for two years in a row now,” said Miller. “Our goal, however, isn’t to stay where we are. We want to continue to climb and reach new heights.
“A few seasons ago, we had never won an SEARC conference crown. Once we took care of that, we moved on to the next goal, which was to become a national player. Now that we have established ourselves as that, we want to carry on, continue to climb the rankings, collect more conference titles, and work our way up to an NCAA title.”
Even with its eyes set upon such challenging goals, the NC State rifle team will march into the season with the confidence and swagger of a team that has been there before. With effective coaching, an accomplished returning base, and a talented incoming fivesome, the Pack knows it has the ability to reach such great heights.
As long as they don’t let go of that championship mentality, there’s a good chance that everything will fall into place as planned.
A championship mentality.
It’s the only logical mindset for NC State rifle head coach Keith Miller and his team to carry into the 2006-07 season. With two consecutive No. 19 final national rankings under its collective belt, the Wolfpack returns all eight team members from last season. That team finished second overall in the South Eastern Air-Rifle Conference (SEARC) behind league rival Birmingham Southern. With a powerful returning core, coupled with a solid incoming class of five, the red and white appear poised to make a serious run at a second SEARC crown this season. The Pack will also be competing as full-fledged members of the Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) in addition to the SEARC.
Two-time SEARC individual champion senior Jennifer Marshall will return to help lead the squad. Alongside Marshall, fellow All-SEARC first-team members senior Matthew Gifford and junior Thomas Knight will resume their pivotal roles.
“We can’t say enough about what Jennifer, Matthew and Thomas have done for this team,” said Miller. “Jennifer has established a serious resume as one of the better air rifle performers in the country after collecting her second straight individual conference championship last year.
“Matthew Gifford was our top shooter, from top-to-bottom, last season, having led the team in more statistical categories than anyone else and winning the team MVP award. Add Thomas Knight into the mix and it’s not hard to understand why we were so successful. Jennifer, Matthew and Thomas have all been first-team all-conference selections the past two seasons, and if we really want to get things done this time around, we will need them to continue building upon their previous performances.”
Five other student-athletes will round out the returning squad: redshirt-freshman Sarah Jo Pleasants, sophomore Noel Keck, juniors Jenna Matino and Joel VandenEnde, and redshirt-junior Bill Reynolds. Miller stresses the importance of each members’ abilities on the team, noting that they all assist the squad with a valuable amount of depth and experience.
Of that group, Reynolds is clearly the most experienced. He continued to show marked improvement last season, finishing the year with a 557 air-rifle average. Matino competed in all but one event a year ago, and appears poised to take another leap in progress this season. Keck shot at all but three events last year, nailing down personal best scores of 563 in air-rifle and 544 in smallbore.
VandenEnde joined the roster late in the spring last season, competing in the final three air-rifle events, and firing a personal-best 551 score. Pleasants will look to get her feet wet this year after redshirting as a freshman.
Besides the veterans, five fresh faces join the Wolfpack’s hunt for success this season: Cameron Beam, Samantha Bullard, Tori Kostecki, Matt Moore and Katie Siegert.
Each of the freshmen have quality prep experience, allowing for additional depth and a solid young foundation to continue building upon once Gifford and Marshall exit at the end of the year.
“We’re very excited about our incoming crop of talent,” said Miller. “We brought in three quality shooters from the state of North Carolina, as well as one from neighboring Virginia. When scouting talent, we always look within our own state and regional area first, and we feel as though we secured some of the best talent around.”
All of the new team members will have an opportunity to compete and earn a participating role on the squad. Miller notes that with hard work and collegiate match experience, all four should eventually progress into essential cogs in the red and white arsenal.
“Katie is probably the strongest of the incoming shooters,” said Miller. “She is particularly strong in smallbore competition. She competed in a lot of prep matches under significant pressure, so she should adjust quickly to the rigors of shooting in college.
“Samantha has some air-rifle experience, but she has only shot smallbore over the past couple of years and that is really her strong suit. Our challenge will be getting her prepared for air-rifle.
“Matt brings a high-powered rifle background through years of shooting with the Sir Walter Gun Club. He understands most of the positions already. We will be working on getting him further adjusted in air-rifle, as well as getting him comfortable with kneeling during smallbore events.
“Cameron is another exciting talent that we’re looking forward to watching progress as he learns more about the sport. Our goal for his first year is getting him adjusted to shooting precision air-rifle and smallbore.
“Tori comes to the program with good experience in three position air-rifle. She competed in the highly competitive Georgia high school circuit, so match pressure will be nothing new to her. She just started competing in smallbore during her senior year of high school, but she has done at great job at progressing with it. We expect her to compete for the first team in air-rifle right from the start. Hopefully by the middle of the year, her smallbore abilities will equal her air-rifle talents. We’ll need her to do that if we are going to be as strong and deep a team as we’ll have to be in order to be competitive in the GARC.”
While nothing is ever guaranteed, the Wolfpack battalion seems to have all of the tools in place to continue making a name for itself on a prominent national circuit this season.
“We have finished in the top 20 for two years in a row now,” said Miller. “Our goal, however, isn’t to stay where we are. We want to continue to climb and reach new heights.
“A few seasons ago, we had never won an SEARC conference crown. Once we took care of that, we moved on to the next goal, which was to become a national player. Now that we have established ourselves as that, we want to carry on, continue to climb the rankings, collect more conference titles, and work our way up to an NCAA title.”
Even with its eyes set upon such challenging goals, the NC State rifle team will march into the season with the confidence and swagger of a team that has been there before. With effective coaching, an accomplished returning base, and a talented incoming fivesome, the Pack knows it has the ability to reach such great heights.
As long as they don’t let go of that championship mentality, there’s a good chance that everything will fall into place as planned.
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Sunday, February 02
Rifle vs North Georgia
Sunday, October 20