Junior Olympic Questions

[Bbryer33]

Hello all I just had a couple of questions regarding the Junior Olympic Qualifications. For those of you who have been invited to Colorado Springs or know of the process could you please tell me if there is any paper work that an individual wishing to attend must fill our prior to attending the match? I have heard from some people at Nationals that you have to sign up online with USA Shooting notifying them that you want to be selected from your state. However, my state director insists that we do not. It is my senior year and I would like to attempt to make it this time, but have not been serious about it in previous years and I'm concerned there's more to it than simply showing up and shooting for such a big match. Also what is the selection process? For air rifle is there a men's and a women's selection and a J1 and a J2 selection for both genders? And for smallbore is it the highest male and female or strictly the top shooter in the state in the match? Any answers would be helpful since USA Shooting will not respond back and the JO dates are coming up in less than a month :) Thank you!!

[Ltdave]

my daughter is brand new in the smallbore/air rifle game this year. she did some preliminary shooting last year but just started getting serious this year...

YES you must be a member of USA Shooting or Sport Shooting USA. not sure exactly what the name of the organization is...

THEN you have to shoot in a state championship and post a certain score...

they have J1, J2 and J3 classifications in both women and mens categories...

[Bbryer33]

I am a member of USA Shooting so is that all that I need to do in order to be selected? I know the match director has to personally send the scores into USA Shooting for each division

[justadude]

You have to look for it a bit but the info is posted on the USA Shooting Website

http://www.usashooting.org/7-events/njosc

Pay particular attention to the tab that says 2014-2015 Rifle/Pistol JO Host Sites, there is good info there, not only for match sponsors but also for the competitors. Page 7 shows the score requirements in order to receive an invitation.

Now I am not coaching these days and have only given this a cursory read but it looks like once the scores are in USAS will then do the inviting without further application.

Anyhow, this will get you started, additionally, there is Tyler Anderson's e-mail address so you can take your questions straight to the source.

'Dude

[Haireacane]

When you register for the state qualifying match you'll include your email address. If you shoot a qualifying score, automatic or high enough to be invited, USA Shooting will send you an email telling you that you have been invited. Most years they have two invitations as not everyone accepts due to the high costs of flying across the country, motel, rental vehicles, etc. So don't give up if you don't get the first invitation. I took 7 of my 4-H Air Pistol kids this year and we had a great time but the cost of the 3,000 mile roundtrip flight and the $1,000 to rent two vans for a week was costly but the memories are priceless.

Good Luck,
David Haire, Tift County Georgia 4-H Shooting Sports

[justadude]

Pay attention to the notion of two waves of invitations:

Now I shot the JOs back in the 1980s and it was a very different world back then but after all the invitations had been sent and and deadline for receipt passed you could write and ask for an invitation. So long as there were openings the powers that be would be pretty accommodating.

As Haireacane notes, depending on your location the logistics can get to be pricey, at the same time, it is a great experience.

Just the simple act of shooting at the OTC is pretty motivating.

'Dude

[Bbryer33]

'Dude,
I am trying to open the Host Site Link and it is only showing me the sites nothing more. Like it's only one page not 7..

[justadude]

Oh, my bad, I meant to say the Host Sites Packet, (next link down) it comes up as a word document.

'Dude

[COBelties]

It sounds like you were pointed in the right direction. Here is a bullet list of answers (sorry if I miss 1 or 2)
For Maine (Im assuming per your user location) the State Qualifier is:
Capitol City Jr Rifle Club - Augusta ME - Julian Beale III bbbasket(at)roadrunner.com
Air rifle January 3rd
Smallbore Rifle January 10th
Air Pistol (December 6th)

Competitors must be members of USAS and most competitions have enrollment forms onsite.
Contact the organizer in advance to confirm a spot
Per the program there are AutoQualifier scores for each Age Category J1, J2, J3 for each sex Men/Women for Each Discipline Air Rifle, Air Pistol, Smallbore 3P, Sport Pistol - Youth achieving the Autoscores or higher (or be the State Champion) will be invited in the first round to the JO's.
State Champions are for each division (MAR, WAR, WSMB3P, MSM3p, etc)

USAS is probably really exhausted right now since they just ran the Winter Air Gun for the past 4 days. It may take them a little time.

[Bbryer33]

Thank you for that!! It finally downloaded properly. The only thing that isn't clear to me is how many individuals get invited per state. Is there a top J1 male and a top J2 male and same for female or is only one male and one female per state? Also the 6 competitors minimum is that women and men or collectively there has to be more than 6 in men's and in women's? Thank y'all for the answers!

[jhmartin]

The state winner (male & female) are automatically invited, IF they make the minimum qualifying score score. That winner could be a J1, J2 or J3 ... it does not matter. But ONLY the overall winner, NOT the winner in each age group.

Next invited are all those who shoot the auto qualifier for their age groups.

Finally USA Shooting begins a process something like:
-- Building a stack of scores for each age group.
-- They take the top score from J3, then J2 then J1
-- continue down the stacks like above until all available relay slots are filled. Depends on how many relays per day they want to run and how many firing points available. The OTC has 70 air rifle points, but some are reserved for hospital points ... so say 60 slots per relay ... if three relays per day then 180 possible overall invites.

After giving all the above a chance to accept the invite ... the time varies ... a week to two weeks or so I think.

They they go thru the remaining stacks to fill the slots that are declined or no responses ... again filling out those slots for the 2nd round invites.

Not the exact procedure, as it may vary slightly. Each age group gets roughly the same number of invites ... some years J1s get more, some years J3s. I have a personal favorite desire of giving the J3's a few more.

The cutoff scores posted on the web now are the 2nd round cutoff scores FROM LAST YEAR .... shooting above them does not guarantee an invite this year, but they can be used as a gauge for if a shooter is close. I like to figure a +/-10 point area around those scores as "possible for an invite".

The only guarantee to get an invite is to shoot above the Auto-Qualifier. You can never count on if you will win the match ... remember this ain't a contact sport and your kids really shoot only against themselves.

I HIGHLY recommend that if a shooters gets a 1st round invite and they accept, they should stay in the dorms ... I think over half the experience the shooters will remember of the Junior Olympics are off range and meeting other shooters from across the country. My own daughters closest friends are shooters from other states ... those bonds last a lifetime.

Joel Martin
State JO qualifiers match coordinator for NM


NOTE TO MODERATOR - I think this thread should be moved to the Youth Shooting Programs area.