Headline: Ohio State pistol team finding success shooting ‘in relative obscurity’

The Ohio State University's campus newspaper, The Lantern, is reporting on the undefeated OSU pistol team's final preparations for the 2014 NRA Intercollegiate Pistol Championships March 8-13.

From the article:

In 15 years as the head coach, James Sweeney has led the pistol team to five national titles and coached seven student-athletes to 23 NRA collegiate individual championships, including senior Joe Totts, the 2013 National Individual Champion in the standard pistol event.

Gene Smith, athletic director and university vice president, said Sweeney is a great teacher and an icon he is proud to have in his athletic department.

“Jim is awesome. Jim has been in it for so long and he’s just a great human being,” Smith said. “He does it the right way, he understands what our goals are — to help young people get their degrees.”

Sweeney, who was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame last year, said he is confident this year’s team can add to his already long list of champions.

“All we have to do is shoot our average and we’ll at least be on the podium, if not win it,” Sweeney said.

Despite the program’s winning past, some members of the team said when their classmates hear they are on the pistol team, usually involves elicited reactions like, “That’s a real thing?” But Sweeney said the team is aware it is one of the least recognized sports at OSU and that it is comfortable that way.

“We shoot in relative obscurity because we love the sport and we’re very fond of each other,” Sweeney said. “We’re a nice tight-knit team and shooting in obscurity doesn’t bother us. I’m proud of my team, that they don’t need the adulation of 100,000 people to try their best.”

Regardless of how obscure the pistol team might be, the article notes the program’s five team championships as a team count toward OSU’s total number of team championships. Also, because it is a varsity sport, every time a pistol team member wins a national championship, Smith gets an extra week of base pay, more than $18,000. Smith said even though they are not in the NCAA, the pistol team’s status as a varsity sport makes it equal to every other sport at OSU.

“They are a varsity sport for us. They compete in their own conference, they just don’t have a NCAA Championship,” Smith told The Lantern. “They’re not a club sport. They have scholarships, they actually go out and recruit talent.”

OSU is the only non-military school in the country to offer scholarships for shooters, an advantage assistant coach Donna Knisley said allows her and Sweeney to get some of the best junior shooters to come to OSU. Knisley said the majority of the team’s opponents are military academies that attract a large number of talented shooters.

“We don’t have as many walk-ons as we used to because we’ve been able to recruit ones that have prior shooting experience,” Knisley said. “In the military academies, they are required to do some sort of physical education or recreation, so a lot of them choose to shoot.”

Totts said his only concern right now is bringing home another championship.

“I constantly try to improve. A perfect score has never been shot so you strive towards that,” Totts said. “I know how to shoot, so I just have to not think about shooting and go do it.”

We wish to offer congratulations to the Buckeye pistol team for their undefeated season, and best wishes for this weekend's championship competition!

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, and BFA PAC Vice Chairman.

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