A local youth competitive shooting team recently traveled to Marengo, Ohio, to compete in the 2023 Scholastic Action Shooting Program National Championship to represent Indiana.
The second week of July, Hoosier Daddy Rifle and Pistol Team competed in the world’s largest action shooting match. Two squads on the team earned national championships and a third-place finish. Multiple team members also earned individual honors.
Richard Neal, one of the team coaches, said the intermediate squad finished first in the nation in rimfire rifle optic and pistol caliber carbine and finished third in the nation in 1911 pistol.
“The Hoosier Daddy Rifle and Pistol Team has 17 team members — 11 boys and six girls,” Neal said. “The competition is scored with squads of four athletes based upon their age, but individual times are scored, as well.”
Neal said the team is currently made up of 15 athletes ranging in age from 9 to 17.
Members of the intermediate (junior high) squad that won two national championships in rimfire pistol and rimfire rifle were Dominick Neal, Kenlei Bragg, Evan Blahunka and Jacob Griffin. The same squad earned third place in 1911 (pistol).
Winning individual awards were Dominick Neal (intermediate advanced), second in rimfire pistol and second in rimfire rifle (male); Kenlei Bragg (intermediate entry), first in rimfire pistol and first in rimfire rifle (female); and Addison Foster (intermediate entry), third in rimfire rifle (female).
Collegiate team member Krista Blahunka also competed in the Collegiate Summer Blast at the same time, earning first (female) in rimfire pistol and rimfire rifle.
An awards ceremony was conducted prior to practice July 18 at South Central Gun Club in Freetown.
Seymour resident and head coach Joshua Bragg said the shooting team is a program for student-athletes of elementary school age through college.
“Our home club is the South Central Gun Club in Freetown, and this is where we hold our practices,” Bragg said. “Our season starts around mid-March and goes through early August generally, and we hold a team practice every Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m.”
He said the team also competes in local matches at South Central Gun Club, Hoosier Hills Gun Club (Columbus), Riley Conservation Club (Terre Haute) and Atlanta Conservation Club (Atlanta). The local matches serve as extra practice for the athletes and help prepare them for competition.
“Our athletes come from all over southern Indiana, and some are from the Seymour/Columbus area, while others come from the Franklin/Greenwood area,” Bragg said. “We are always looking for new athletes, and anyone interested can call or text me at 812-767-9097.“
He said SASP uses the school grade the athlete is in to determine their age group. While there is no specific minimum age, they find that generally fifth grade seems to be about the youngest athletes that can safely handle the .22 LR rifles. The maximum is 12th grade.
“SASP offers the following disciplines: Rimfire rifle iron sight, rimfire rifle optic, rimfire pistol iron, rimfire pistol optic, centerfire pistol, 1911, pistol caliber carbine and revolver,” He said. “SASP starts athletes with .22 LR rifles, and the most common rifle we use is the Ruger 10/22 platform.”
He said SASP athletes also can compete with .22 LR pistols.
“The most common we use are Browning Buckmark and Smith & Wesson Mark IV,” Bragg said. “More experienced athletes may compete with pistol caliber carbine (9 mm AR platform rifles) and centerfire pistols, such as the 1911 model or Glock-style pistols.”
He said the mission of all SASP teams is youth development through team-based shooting sports.
“Our hope is to instill in these young athletes values and traits that will stay with them throughout their lives,” Bragg said. “We have a strong focus on values, such as sportsmanship, discipline, responsibility and integrity, but above all, we make sure we are always safe and always have fun.”
He has watched the young athletes work together and improve themselves, and as they do, their self-confidence improves along with their work ethic and dedication to self and team.
“Along the way, they learn to work as a team, they experience wins and losses and how to overcome challenges,” Bragg said. “This sport doesn’t just make the athletes better. It also makes us coaches and mentors better.”
He said since 2012, SASP has been governed by the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, and there are teams from all over the country.
“Teams are broken up into groups of four known as squads based on age,” he said. “This is to ensure an even playing field for all athletes. Hoosier Daddy Rifle and Pistol Team currently consists of one rookie squad, two intermediate squads and one JV/varsity squad.”
Ages of the squad members are: Rookie, grade 5 and below; intermediate, grades 6 to 8; and JV/varsity, grades 9 to 12.
“I could not be more proud of our intermediate squad, and they’re young kids,” Bragg said. “They went to the nationals and they knew what they needed to do, and they did it two days in a row.”
Bragg’s 12-year-old daughter, Kenlei Bragg, a student at Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour, said she was a little nervous before nationals because last year, her rifle broke during competitions.
But not this year. She went into the competition with a positive outlook but didn’t expect to win two national titles.
“A couple of things I enjoy about being a member of this team are shooting with my teammates and competing,” she said.
Kenlei said her dad has been a competitive shooter for a long time, and one day, he asked her if she’d like to try it out, and she did.
“Now, I’ve been shooting for about five years and competing for three,” she said. “I’d like to see more girls on the team, and for any girls interested in shooting, I’d say don’t be intimidated by the boys.”
Greenwood resident Dominick Neal, 14, the son of Richard Neal, said he prepared himself for the national competitions by engaging in multiple practice sessions.
“The mental part of it is getting myself calmed down,” said Dominick, who has been on the team for about five years. “I know what I can do, but a lot of times, I overthink it.”
When asked which kind of shooting he thinks he excels at, his answer was pistol.
“It’s just easier for me and I don’t know why, but when I switch over to rifle, I try too hard,” Dominick said.
As for what he enjoys about shooting sports, he said it’s the camaraderie.
“I’d encourage other kids to give this a try because it’s a fun sport,” he said. “If you like it, you like it, but if you don’t, you don’t, but just give it a try because you can meet a lot of nice people in this.”
The collegiate team has its own national championship, and this is Krista Blahunka’s last year of being on the team. The 19-year-old takes online courses from Southern New Hampshire University.
“I’ve been shooting about five or six years and first got interested when I signed up for shooting sports in 4-H,” she said. “I really liked it, so then we found this team, and I’ve been shooting ever since.”