Cookeville’s Bend of the River BB Gun Team is heading to the Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match in Rogers, Arkansas.
The competition focuses on putting ten shots on four rings each from a distance of five meters. Head Coach Jason Grider said that the competition is about more than shooting, it’s also about imparting life skills onto the participants.
“Dealing with pressure is very, a very handy skill to develop when you’re young,” Grider said, “It also helps with school, you know, having to go to school and deal with everything kids are having to deal with in school now. Having these skills that we’re teaching them on a Saturday morning comes in handy,” Grider said.
Grider said skills like resilience, discipline, and focus are as crucial on the range as they are in the classroom. Grider said the drive to Nationals comes after his team took first place at the state competition in Livingston in April.
The team of seven will arrive in Arkansas for the 3-day tournament on June 30. They will be just one team of many, with the event expected to draw some 600 kids, according to Grider.
“It’s a fun thing to do,” Grider said, “We go and we have the actual competition in a conference room, conference hotel and all the kids get to run around and make new friends with people from all over the country. They also have other things like a barter bar where we take things from our area and trade it with people from other areas. That’s a whole lot of fun. And the Daisy CEO actually comes and sets up there and trades Daisy stuff.”
Grider said the program also lays the groundwork for responsible gun ownership as an adult.
“Not only are we teaching these kids how to shoot, we’re teaching them, in the future, how to properly use the firearm if they ever want to get one of their own,” Grider said.
Grider said competitors will square off in challenges consisting of two days of shooting and a day for a 50-question gun safety test. The Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match has been held since 1966, one of the longest-running youth shooting competitions in the nation.
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