Collegiate Shooting

[kfowlow]

Fellow Shooters,
I have just recently moved to a city that has a NCAA team. Personally, I have been out of shooting for about 10 years but would like to help out this team anyway I can. I have met one of the shooters outside of the school and have been talking about his team and what they do. Talking with this guy has been enlightening to me. He is I guess a walk-on or at least a non-scholarship shooter. When he first joined the team, his coach told him that he would be only shooting air-rifle. Now their range is small, only 6 smallbore and 6 air-rifle positions. I asked my friend why he is not allowed to shoot small-bore and he really didn't have a good answer. This past weekend I went to one of his matches and talked to him and a fellow teammate. They are very dissapointed that when they joined the team that they would only be shooting air-rifle. After only learning small-bore in high school you can imagine their dissapointment. When I shot for a college team, we shot both and competed within the team to see who would travel to matches. To me, my friend and his teammates who are only shooting air-rifle are not competing in this fashion. When I left the range, I guess my friend and his teammate asked their coach why they weren't allowed to shoot small-bore. He told them that he wants the scholarshiped shooters to get in 3 hours 6 days a week. Hence there is not enough time for everyone to shoot. I told my friend that this is bogus and will try to change the coach's mind. Shooting like this doesn't promote competition within the team and a team member who is only shooting air rifle will not be able to move up to small-bore. Before I left I gave the coach my card and told him to contact me if I can help in any way. Hopefully he will and I'll see if I can do something about this situation. Even if it just babysitting a range for a night. Just as long as I can get in a few shots myself. Does anyone have this situation with their teams. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about change?