Young shooter makes history at NJOSC

PALMER — Shawn Kelly knows with high-caliber competition comes some high-caliber nerves.

That’s what the 17-year-old Twindly Bridge Charter School student and air pistol shooter learned last week at the 2011 USA National Junior Olympic Shooting Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Although he didn’t make the finals, Kelly made history just by being there. He was the first Alaskan to win an invitation to the NJOSC for air pistol. Many from the Last Frontier have been invited to compete in rifle, but Kelly is the first pistol shooter.

“It felt pretty historic,” Kelly said. “It was nice to have the first in something. That doesn’t happen too often.”

While in Colorado Springs, Kelly finished 24th of 25 shooters in the Junior 1 Division with a total score of 971. The total is a composite of a 491 shot on the first day of the competition on Wednesday, and a 480 the second day, Thursday. The showing was a little disappointing, as Kelly usually averages about 530 and won the Alaska state competition with a 509.

But he also gained valuable experience against top-flight shooters and got advice from national shooting coaches.

“It was much tougher (that state),” he said. “The people are much more experienced. I learned some techniques on how to handle match pressure. I got nervous because this was one of the biggest matches, and when the score counts that’s when I really get nervous.”

Kelly said he can’t wait to go back and put what he’s learned to the test.

“I’m going to try to put in those techniques and hopefully get into the finals and put Alaska on the map for pistol shooting,” he said. “One of our goals is to send more pistol shooters down to the Olympic center.”

Shawn is coached by his father, Mike Kelly, who also teaches shooting at Twindly Bridge.

“I’ve been coaching him off and on for about five years,” he said. “We started out just doing 4-H stuff, having fun with it. He’s been more serious about it the past couple of years.”

Although Shawn was invited to the NJOSC for air pistol, he also holds several state records in black powder shooting. In 2008 and 2009, he was the National Junior champion for muzzle loading pistol.

At the national level, many of the shooters used expensive, top-of-the-line equipment, Shawn said. While those pistols are nice, he said about 95 percent of being successful is the shooter, not the weapon.

“You can have the finest equipment and shoot really bad,” he said. “But you can also be a really good shooter and, with lesser equipment, do really good.”

In the end, the highlight of the trip was spending about 30 minutes being personally coached by USA Shooting head pistol coach Sergei Luzov.

“From what I learned from coach Luzov, and with lots of practice, my goal is to qualify in both air pistol and sport pistol next year.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.