Junior Rifle Camp at Camp Perry Prepares Juniors for the Future

By Ashley Brugnone, CMP Writer

The 2013 Camp Perry Summer Camp Counselors.

CAMP PERRY, OH – The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Marksmanship Center at Camp Perry was host to a nearly packed building at the CMP Junior Rifle Camp, held June 24-28. A group of 76 participants filled the 80-point range, along with their adult chaperones and coaches.

The Junior Air Rifle Camp is a summer program conducted each year around the country to teach intermediate and advanced rifle marksmanship skills to high school junior shooters through exercises and demonstrations. Camps are one week long, highlighting the three positions used during air rifle competitions, and are headed by counselors from some of the top NCAA rifle teams in the country.

Dan Durben was the director and chief instructor for the camps at Camp Perry. Either he or Wood is present at each camp.

Dan Durben, one of the directors and a chief instructor for the camps, was present during the Camp Perry session. Durben, in his ninth summer with the camps, is an Olympian and former U.S. Olympic Rifle and Paralympic Shooting Team coach.

“I’ve always been really interested in working with juniors at the development level. And my real interest was in working with top level shooters – ways that we can present things to developing shooters to make them better and to make them better, faster,” he said.

Each shooter was given a “Shooting Journal” to record his or her lessons of the day.

One of the main goals of the camps, according to Durben, is to teach the juniors how to be leaders and how to be unafraid to show others their talents and leadership skills.

“Some of that applies to shooting, but I think a lot of it also applies to other aspects of their lives,” he said.

Positive cultural changes in how the junior shooters approach training and competitions, as well as how they carry themselves on the range, are all things Durben has noticed over the years at his camps. He also mentioned that he has been impressed with the shooters and coaches who attend the camps, saying they often have an “engaged” presence.

Counselors are engaging, friendly and helpful to all shooters who attend the camps.

“I think the coaches all did really well with their kids at Camp Perry, and that’s important to the experience that they have while at the camp,” he added. “An interesting comment from one of the coaches at one of the camps was that he was hesitant when he first came to one of these a few years ago because of costs, since it’s hard to come up with funding. And then he said after coming to one of these, he can’t afford not to come.”

Many coaches from schools bring their teams to the camps year after year because of the impact it makes on their juniors, both in their shooting talents and personally in their lives. Some coaches even bring their kids over great distances just to receive the benefits the training will give their shooters for the future.

Parents and guardians are encouraged to come to the camps to witness the training their shooters are receiving.

“The week was fantastic. The counselors were great, the instruction was professional, and I felt like it was a very calm, cool, collected environment,” said SMA Michael Dechy with Freeport High School NJROTC in Freeport, IL. “The kids are just amazingly happy, so we’re really pleased with that. It was worth all of the time and effort to get to here.”

Counselors led shooters in stretching exercises each day to prepare them for the grueling training ahead.

Another important aspect of the camp is the pairing of the juniors with college shooters, who serve as their counselors. All of the juniors are sectioned off into training groups with a few of the counselors, to allow for better interaction and instruction.

“I think it’s just the right age difference to where there is some authority, but they’ll actually listen to the counselors,” said Durben. “These collegiate athletes really do get through to the shooters.”

“This week went pretty well. We saw a lot of good scores, and we said a lot of really solid positions built. It shows a lot of potential for the kids,” said Dan Hermsmeier from the University of Memphis, who has been a counselor at the camps for three years.

Kelsey Emme, from Murray State University is in her second year of counseling. Like Hermsmeier, she also travels with the camps because she enjoys watching the juniors take an interest in the shooting sport and to improve within it.

“We had some difficulties this week, but I saw a lot of improvement in positioning,” she said. “It was fun watching them excel.”

Counselors worked alongside shooters to help them improve in each position.

Along with a slew of other junior shooters, Katherine Burroughs of Calvert High School JROTC shot her personal best during the camp, saying that the week was really worth the work.

“I shot my best and I had a lot of fun,” she said with a smile. “I had a good week.”

With more than satisfied coaches and improved junior shooters, the week at Camp Perry began and ended with smiles on the firing line. But, as Durben said, there’s more to the camp than improving scores – it’s about preparing for the future.

Each day of the camp ends with reflection from the counselors on training points and improvements.

“My favorite part is actually watching the shooters a few years later, to see how these camps affect people. It’s really rewarding to see people from the camps move on and do great things, whether it’s in shooting or other things,” said Durben.

He says he’s still waiting to see his first Olympian camper. But, he’s patiently waiting, and the potential is certainly there.

In addition to the week at Camp Perry, other Junior Rifle Camps were held in Colorado Springs, CO; Albuquerque, NM; Phoenix, AZ; and Anniston, AL. Outreach Clinics were held in Texas, California, New Jersey, Utah and Missouri.  

The competitions within the camps are conducted by the counselors themselves. Camp Perry’s camp was held within the world-class CMP Marksmanship Center air rifle range.

Sommer Wood, the camps and clinics program coordinator and a chief instructor, oversaw the Anniston camp that was taking place at the same time as the Camp Perry camp.  “This is a very exciting year for the Junior Rifle Camps Program.  When I first became involved with the camps 10 years ago, we were reaching about 350 athletes each summer.  This year we will reach a new camp record of 700 athletes, which is just an amazing number of juniors coming through the program,” said Wood.

Those shooters who shot personals best scores were asked to come forward on the final day of the camp at Camp Perry to receive certificates. An overwhelming group arose.

If you want to see the success stories from the summer camps, Wood points out that you don’t have to look much further than the counselor staff.  “Nine of our current counselors were once campers, and the number of former campers that are returning to work for us in the summer is growing every year.  It is very exciting to see these shooters pursuing the paths that we introduced them to at the camps, and achieving great success at the next level.  We even have several former counselors who now coach at the NCAA level, or work fulltime for CMP.  So this program has truly made strides in developing leaders through teaching both campers and counselors life skills that will benefit them beyond their shooting careers,” said Wood.

For more information on the summer camps, visit www.thecmp.com/3P/Camp.htm.