TargetTalk

I got this today on Facebook from Rose-Hulman's coach Jason LaBella:

Got word today that as of the end of the school year, the rifle team at Rose-Hulman is losing its budget and its backing as an NCAA sport. We are gearing up to try to fight for every inch we can, but we are probably going to need some help. I am starting this group as a means for communication of updates and a way for people to show their support.

For Facebook users:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45331404081

Rose-Hulman Site
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/sports/rifle.htm

Coach LaBella's e-mail:
labelljp@rose-hulman.edu

Thats really too bad :(. I joined the facebook group.

Jason,
Want to post any administrative emails. There are many of us that could email polite requests to reconsider their decision, and show support for the team and Rose-Hulman.

Joe

Jason sent out this message today (via facebook)

Collegues, friends, and family,

As you have heard, Rose-Hulman is cutting our rifle program citing budget issues. We have petitioned the administration and today have gained approval to continue through the 09-10 season with zero funding from our school and using our own money, but will be pushed to a club level team after that season concludes. We will be starting a fundraising campaign and further pressing the institution to let us continue at the NCAA level under own power until the budget opens back up. Please pass this along to any and all networks you desire. If you wish show your support, here are the people to contact:

President Gerald Jakubowski gerald.jakubowski@rose-hulman.edu
VP Student Affairs Pete Gustafson gustadso@rose-hulman.edu

If you do contact these gentlemen, please thank them for allowing us to continue for one more season and pose the question of what it would take to continue for more.

I have already recieved some offers of donations. If you are able and willing to make such a contribution, please send checks made out to the team to my snail mail directly and I will file them accordingly with the school.

I am convinced that this is not the end of our program, simply a new chapter in its excellent existence.

Truly Yours In Shooting,

Jason LaBella
BS Mechanical Engineering, 2004
Head Rifle Coach
Rose-Hulman Institute of Techonlogy
CM 41
5500 Wabash Avenue
Terre Haute, IN 47803
(812) 201-7373

I certainly hope they can pull it together at the end of the season. I always enjoyed shooting against them and the rest of the WIRC conference.

an update:

This weekend, our Board of Trustees met and voted to support the decision made by the administration of end our program. Much of the argument as it was relayed to me was based around making cuts that will not affect scholarships and our faculty staffing levels. This translates to: We understand that we may lose some recruits because of this decision, but the level of engineering education we provide to the rest of those who do come will suffer. With this decision, I am being blocked from obtaining the list of all our team alumni, and any communication with them will have to go through the same administration that cut us for review before being sent. Now that the season is over, I will be organizing a fundraising campaign, probably centered around a worldwide (yes, WORLD wide) raffle and donation drive. If anyone has an item to donate for the drive, it would be tax deductible, as are all monatary donations. I challenge that if you care about this team's existence, you will do at least 1 thing: pass this along to others who would care about our cause.

“Of course we must fear evil men, but there is another evil that we must fear more… and that is the indifference of good men.”

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. The time is now. Let me know how you can help us.
-Jason

Can someone share the difference between a team organized as a club sport and one organized as an NCAA sport? Assuming the University continues to support the range facility, is there any real difference?

Hi,

I am a former shooter from the St John's University shooting program. We lost our NCAA status my senior year and went to Club status. I truly believe this was just one step in the School's plan to get rid of the sport all together. It was just a few years after that when they turned our beautiful range into some storage unit.

It's worth the fight!

Anonymous wrote:Can someone share the difference between a team organized as a club sport and one organized as an NCAA sport? Assuming the University continues to support the range facility, is there any real difference?

As an NCAA sport the team must adhere to ncaa rules and regulations, can offer scholarships, but most importantly, shooters on an NCAA team have the opportunity to compete and win an NCAA national title. They are (theoretically) the same as all the football, basketball, and baseball athletes.

As far as club team championships I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the NRA has a national championship they can compete in if they qualify. While club teams are great if there is not an NCAA team at the school, to lose NCAA status is a pretty big blow not just to the team, but to the sport.

See the NRA Collegiate Programs site for description of the NCAA and club rifle programs.

http://www.nrahq.org/compete/coldir.asp

Searching the information on NRA's website (Thanks to PaulB) suggests that there are 35 schools with NCAA rifle programs of some sort, smallbore, air rifle, or both. Five are military academies, six appear to be reserved for women only. Some have on-campus ranges, provide equipment and offer scholarships; some have none of these things. It seems that only a handful of schools, perhaps 8 at most, have a realistic chance at winning the NCAA national championship.

Given the numbers involved, perhaps NCAA status is a pipe dream. I respect all the coaches and athletes who have achieved excellence, but is the honor of winning any less if it comes in NRA sanctioned matches where the pool of competitors, both individuals and teams, is greater?

Bottom line, of course, is that the range needs to be kept open and available so the sport can continue in any fashon at all!

There was an article in our local paper today which brought this thread back to mind. It seems that the U.S. Association for College Fencing Clubs will host the National Fencing Championship in Wisconsin this weekend. By way of background, fencing was once a varsity sport at every Big Ten Conference university, including Wisconsin. But in 1991 the university athletic board dropped this sport, and 4 others, in response to budget and gender discrimination issues. This parallelled the fate of varsity-level fencing all over the country, until today there are only 21 schools participating at the NCAA level. (I have not checked the accuracy of that factoid, but the paper is generally reliable.) As a club sport, UW fencing dropped to only 3 members in by 1998.

The encouraging news for fencing (and possibly for marksmanship as well) is that through the efforts of a few individuals, the sport is enjoying a resurgeance. The Wisconsin Fencing Club now has 48 members, with 22 on the traveling team. They compete against surviving varsity programs such as Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State, and other clubs around the Midwest. The national tournament in Wisconsin this weekend will attract clubs from all across the country, from California to Washington D.C. The event has more than doubled in size since its debut in 2003 and is now larger than the NCAA championships. It is, in fact, the largest collegiate fencing competiton in the world.

Now to marksmanship: If participation at the NCAA level continues to drop, it might be better to put energy into building a strong club-level structure than to bleed ourselves dry in an ultimately losing battle. I may be wrong on this, but I thought I throw it out there for discussion.

Hey guys,

I know this was a thread from a long time ago, but I wanted to make sure you all had the most up to date information. I have worked out an agreement with the administration that as long as we can raise the funds to run our program via means outside the institute, we can continue to remain a NCAA team. Unfortunately, I have also received word that if we fail to raise the funds, the program is completely done and the school will not allow the Student Government to own firearms. This comes all too soon after an unfortunate event with our casual shooting club that was student lead with no advisor interaction, where a student was injured when a firearm malfunctioned due to improper maintance.

That all being said, I will be putting together a proposal for every grant I can find and have much experience with such. Where I am inexperienced is running a fundraising campaign. If you have some advice or can point me a friendly direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks for everything you've done so far, as it seems the emails to administration in the spring really helped, and the kind words of support that I have received have helped keep my spirits high. For the last decade I have poured my heart out for this team as both a shooter and a coach, and fully intend to keep it going for decades to come.

Yours In Shooting,

Jason LaBella
Head Rifle Coach
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology