The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
The UAB Players’ Tribune: SoCon Freshman of the Year Amy Kohan
4/13/2020 12:34:00 PM | Rifle
"It's not that kind of rifle team," I said as I explained to a high school classmate that we don't twirl rifles and march with the band. "We shoot rifles," I said. She seemed confused.
In my sophomore year of high school, I decided to try out for my school's rifle team. I was already on the high school softball team and had grown up playing travel softball. I enjoyed being part of a team and the friendships that grew from the shared ups and downs of competition. So, I thought, "Why not try something new?" I didn't have much experience in rifle other than playing around with a BB gun and shooting cans, but I quickly grew to really love it.
Rifle wasn't like other sports. It didn't matter how fast you were, how tall, or short in my case, you were. I really liked that rifle was a co-ed sport where men and women compete together equally. I made time over the summer to keep training and competing. I steadily improved my skills. All the time and effort I put in really helped me to make a mark on my high school team. I set individual and team scoring records.
In my junior year, I was selected to join the Arlington Acorns Rifle Club. This exposed me to a higher level of instruction and competition. From my travel rifle team's perspective, I was becoming one of the better shooters and getting invited to more matches, including some national matches.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed rifle, it wasn't always easy for me. I had a hard time sitting still as a kid. I still do, in fact. I tend to shake a lot, especially in high stress situations. Really good rifle shooters figure out how to control their mind and bodies and keep their heart rate low. This really affected me in my first few matches. But my coach never let me use that as an excuse. He would get on me when I absentmindedly adjusted my position in the middle of a match or flipped my feet around when in prone. One-time he even duct taped my feet to the floor after one too many adjustments. My coach would always tell me to set goals. Goals for practice. Goals for matches.
I was never one for wanting to make goals. Thinking back to middle school, I always dreaded thinking about my future and setting goals for myself. I always set goals that I thought were achievable. Most of the goals I set were more short term in nature: play well in the next game, have a good match, shoot for a personal best. If I couldn't control the outcome why set it as a goal?
One resource I found that was extremely helpful to me was the book, Bullseye Mind by Raymond Prior, that dives into the mental side of rifle. The one chapter that really left an impression on me was a chapter about goals.
However, Prior had a totally different view than I did about setting goals. He said to make big long-term goals about what you want to become while disregarding the odds. The last part is what really stuck with me. Disregard the odds? I had been setting goals that I thought I had a good chance of achieving. I thought why not try this new line of thinking out.
As the high school rifle season was winding down, I was faced with a reality that my journey with athletics was coming to an end. I didn't want my rifle career to end with high school.
After connecting with coach Lori Goodwin and hearing there could be an opportunity to join the UAB rifle team, I went to tour the campus and visit the city. UAB's school of engineering was solid and I liked the campus. I was ecstatic when Coach Goodwin offered me a spot on the team.
College rifle teams compete in two disciplines, air rifle and smallbore rifle, which is a .22 caliber firearm. The scores for both disciplines are totaled for aggregate score. In competition, a team fields five athletes that shoot for score with the lowest individual score being dropped. The team would have of a roster of twelve for the coming season. I was hopeful that I would have a chance to help contribute to the team by being included in scoring matches.
Shortly after team practices began at UAB, I made my goals for the 2019-2020 season. No longer was I going to set small easy goals. Along with the goal of helping the team repeat as conference champions, I decided to make a goal of being selected as Southern Conference Freshman of the Year. Although I was nervous when I first joined the team, everyone went out of their way to make me feel very comfortable.
The first half of the season went well as we went undefeated in our conference matches. In scoring average for the conference, UAB was trailing behind North Georgia, who was the team most likely to challenge us for the championship title. In the individual standings, I was in the top-10 of conference shooters in two of the three categories. However, two other freshmen were ahead of me in scoring averages for air, smallbore, and aggregate.
In the second half of the season, our UAB team turned it up, beating UNG in our conference match, in which we notched our highest score for the season. In that same match, I set a personal best in smallbore and aggregate scores. We finished the season going 7-0 in conference play.
Coach Goodwin nominated me for the Freshman of the Year award. Although I did perform better toward the end of the season, I didn't think it was enough to surpass the other two freshmen nominated for the award.
The conference championship was held the first weekend in March, pitting all eight teams together to contend for the trophy. As a team we were feeling good about our chances to come out on top, but we knew that UNG would put up a fight. First, we won the smallbore title by fourteen points, leaving UNG to take second place. In the air rifle competition, North Georgia began to chip away at our lead. It came down to the wire, as we edged the Nighthawks for the championship by four points with the final score being 4539-4535.
After the competitions, the top eight individual athletes with the highest scores participate in an elimination final. These matches end with athletes being eliminated one by one after firing single shots in each round. I qualified to shoot in both the smallbore and air rifle finals. I had confidence going into the finals as I had I participated in many of these eliminations while on the Arlington Acorns team. I'd learned to harness my nervousness in high pressure situations and use it to focus my attention.
I earned the bronze medal in smallbore and the silver medal in air rifle. With my performance in the finals, I earned first team All-Conference honors in both disciplines as one of only four shooters to do so and myself being the only freshman.
When the awards were bestowed, UAB was crowned Southern Conference Champion for the second consecutive year. Given the relatively small margin of victory, it was truly a team effort to be able to win the championship. All the hard work we put in as a team and all the lessons we learned from Coach Goodwin throughout the year helped us accomplish this achievement.
When they announced the recipient of the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year, my name was called. As unlikely as it seemed for most of the season, I had obtained my goal at the end. I believe it was my performance during conference championship and specifically in the finals that put me there.
This year, I learned that goal setting, the mental aspect of shooting and having a supportive coach and teammates are just as important as your skills as a marksman. When you allow yourself to make goals thinking about potential future accomplishments, it's the journey that will be the biggest reward.
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." ― Norman Vincent Peale
Ever Faithful, Ever Loyal
Amy Kohan
For more information about the UAB rifle team, follow the Blazers on Twitter (@UAB_Rifle), Instagram (uab_rifle) and Facebook (@UAB.Rifle).
