Livermore teens excel at competitive marksmanship

By Linda Bell
Livermore Correspondent

When the Franz family moved to Livermore in 1998, Cheryl Franz told her kids they would have to find something challenging they liked to do on the mountain because she wasn't going to drive them to town all the time.

As a result, Kayla, 13, and her brother Scott, 15, joined the Livermore Wranglers 4-H Club where four years ago they both got interested in target shooting, first with BB guns, and then with air rifles.

Both teens will compete this month in air rifle and small bore precision shooting competition at the USA Shooting Nationals at Fort Benning, Ga., sponsored by the Army Marksmanship Unit.

"So much for not taking them anywhere," Franz laughed.

As a member of the Colorado American Legion team, Scott said, he will also compete later this summer at the National Junior Olympics in Bowling Green, Ky., and at Camp Perry, Ohio. He is the only male on the team of four.

Scott said precision shooting takes incredible concentration. "My dream," he said, "is to train for the Olympics." He said they have private land in the area where they train and where he and Kayla set up serious mock competitions.

Kayla said that at 13 she is among the youngest of the competitive shooters in the J-3 class for women 14 and under. "There are only a couple of us in that class," she said. Kayla said her goal is to eventually qualify for a college scholarship in precision shooting at one of the 15 colleges in the nation that currently offer such scholarships.

The two home-schooled teens both started competitive shooting through 4-H in the sporter class, which uses a smaller weight class of air rifle and is more like hunting. In 2004, Scott earned a bronze award in sporter class competition at the Junior Olympics. Success in sporter class competition led them both to try precision class shooting, which uses more sophisticated and adjustable equipment, Scott said.

Kayla said precision marksmanship is often measured in three shooting positions --prone, standing and kneeling--and each one takes different kinds of muscle control to not wobble.

She said competition shooting requires her to think about what she's doing and focus only on the moment. She said she often uses a relaxation CD before competitions and at night to help her mind and body train for that level of concentration.