JUNE 2004

OUR 2004 OLYMPIC TEAM


Lester L. Greevy, Jr

The five men and three women who will travel to Athens this August to represent
the United States in the Clay Target Competitions at the 2004 Olympic Games have
been chosen in what was one of the best and most exciting selection matches in
recollection.

Lance Bade (Olympian in '96 & 2000) and Brett Ericson ('92 & '96) will shoot
mens Trap and Whitley Collyn Loper, age 17, will compete for the women's gold.

Collyn's story is the stuff Olympic dreams are made of. The High School Junior
is naturally right handed but was born blind in the right eye so she trained
herself to shoot lefty. It was not easy. Early in her career she struggled, but
she was committed and she persevered . She climbed the ladder and won Junior
Olympic medals. She traveled overseas and medaled including gold and an Olympic
quota spot at the Pan American games. She never lost her dream.

The Olympic Selection process has 2 steps, the Fall and then the Spring
Selection Matches. After the Fall Selection Match at the Olympic Shooting
Center, Colorado Springs, Collyn was 2 targets ahead of Army's Staff Sgt. Joetta
Dement with 275 targets yet to shoot in the Spring at Joetta's Home Field, Fort
Benning, Georgia.

In International Clay Target competitions, after the regulation match, the top
six scorers then shoot a final round which is added to the match score to
determine winner and places. As the final began, Collen held a slim 1 target
lead. After the final, they were tied 471 each.

Normally the shoot off would be single barrel, miss and out but as these were
the Olympic trials, and the shoot off was for the one women's trap slot on the
Olympic team the shoot off was a full 25 target round, head to head. Under
unbelievable pressure and in absolute silence from the spectators, Collen &
Joetta put on one of the most drama filled and professional shooting exhibitions
I have even seen. Two great competitors vying for the one place on the Olympic
Team. Collen prevailed 24-23. Here is how she described it.

"That was probably one of the hardest things I?ll ever do in my life. I thought
we would do a miss-and-out tie-breaker, but after I heard we had to do a full
round, I knew I had to remain focused. I don?t think I have ever had to
concentrate that hard for that long. Dement was a great competitor."

Both of these fine athletes earned and deserved the explosion of applause that
accompanied the end of their tie breaker. They are both great competitors.

The top Junior Men Trap Shooters were both Texans, Shelden Benge, now at
Lindenwood College, placed 12th and Max Jolliff, a high school student took 13th
only one target back of Benge.

The Olympic Double Trap Competition was also exciting. The winners of the two
Olympic team berths were Texan, Glenn Eller (2000) and Army's Brett Ericson.
Ericson, who has announced his retirement from the Army's Marksmanship Unit this
fall after the Olympics has shown that he is going out at the top of his game
representing his country in two disciplines at the 2004 Olympics.

But the great story in Double Trap has to do with Yogi Berra's statement "It
ain?t over till it's over" and 2 very accomplished shooters who did not shoot up
to their expectations in the Fall match but shot their way back in the Spring.

USA Shooting resident athlete Jeff Holguin stood 5th after the Fall match and
USA MU's Bill Keever (2000 Olympics) was 8th.

Shooting conditions were very different for the Spring Double Trap match with
low temperatures and high winds. Scores were lower then expected. It was tough
shooting. Both Keever and Holguin buckled down and very quietly shot beautiful
matches posting the 2 high scores for the match. They ended the combined (Spring
& Fall) match with Holguin in 3rd & Keever tied with Junior, Josh Richmond for
4th. All three shot 44's in the final so Holguin took 3rd and Richmond & Keever
shot off in another 50 target final, head to head, with Keever winning.

I want to personally thank Bill Keever for the sportsmanship and courtesy he
showed my Junior shooter, Richmond in that shoot off.

In women's Double Trap, Kim Rhode ('96 Gold '00 Silver) again showed why she is
a 3 time Olympian. She battled the tough conditions. I walked with her from the
top field after the last round on the first day. Her comment was "This is no
walk in the park. I feel good being able to average 40 today." Because Kim also
has a minimum qualifying score (MQ's) in Skeet, she will be allowed to compete
in that discipline as well.

Kelly Doll, a former Pennsylvanian, now living in Virginia, who only recently
took up Double Trap placed second. Kelly's family has a cabin near our bunker
and she sometimes trains with us. That was a very good showing for Kelly. The
two Juniors, Lynsey Arnold and Molly Bender are also Pennsylvanians and my
trainees.

Unfortunately, Women's Double Trap will no longer be an Olympic event after
2004. That is too bad. It is a good sport for both men and women, the hardest of
the Olympic Clay Target disciplines. Here in the East, we were developing a
cadre of good lady Double Trap Shooters, including Kelly Doll, Juniors, Lynsey
Arnold and Molly Bender, and Senior, Phyllis Kernan.

The young shooters that I train did very well in the Olympic trials. In Double
Trap, the only event in which we competed my boys took 4 of the first 5 Junior
places and all being in the top 12 overall. Three, Richmond, Corey Sidorek, and
Matt Drexler will be shooting for their country at the World Cup Competition in
Americana Brazil in early June.

Connie Smotek (1992) won the women's Skeet by 10 targets over Junior Haley Dunn,
but the men's Skeet competition was another nail-biter.

Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Roy and USA MU Sgt. 1st Class Todd Graves ('92, '96 &
2000 Bronze) had been neck and neck the whole tournament, but lurking right
behind was AMU Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Dulohery who ran a 25 straight in the final
to take the 1st Olympic slot. Roy and Graves, who were then tied, both shot
perfect in the next round, so went to a second tie breaker that Graves was 23/22
sending him to his 4th Olympic games.

Olympic athletes work on 4 year cycles known as quadrennials or quads. 2004 is
the year of the games, the end of one quad and the beginning of the next. We
wish our Olympic team well in August at Athens. We are already preparing for
Bejing in 2008.

"It's not every 4 years, it's every day."