Anoka, Forest Lake posts win state shooting titles
FOREST LAKE — Meet 16-year-old Chloe Parmeter. She is from North Branch and is a participant in American Legion Junior Shooting Sports in the precision class with the Forest Lake Post 225 team.
“I always kind of liked guns. My friend told us about it, and we started shooting,” she said.
Seven teams from across Minnesota competed at Forest Lake Post 225 on Saturday, Jan. 24, to determine the state champion of 3-Position American Legion Junior Shooting Sports.
They use air rifles firing pellets.There are two classes of shooters: Precision and Sporter. Kids usually start out in Sporter. As they improve and their gear improves, they move up to Precision.
In the end, Anoka Post 102 emerged as state champion in Precision. North St. Paul Post 39 won the Sporter class.
Like how Legion Baseball teams often are part of a local baseball or youth sports association, so are the JSS teams. Post 102’s team is associated with the Anoka-based Minnesota Centershots Jr. Rifle Club, while Post 39 is connected to students from St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights.
Parmeter encouraged young people to go out for the sport and called on posts to find coaches to launch teams.
“At least try it,” she said. “I was a bit overwhelmed the first few weeks, but then you get into it.”
The Post 225 team is run by the Gopher Rifle & Revolver Club, based in Harris.
To register, visit legion.org/get-involved/youth-programs/junior-shooting-sports. (Or just search for “legion.org junior shooting sports.”)
Registration opens Sept. 1 and closes Dec. 15, said Minnesota American Legion Junior Shooting Sports Chairman Carl Wilson, who is a member of Brandon Post 278.
He said posts can reach out to 4-H clubs. Some of them have air-rifle programs and would like Legion affiliation and support. The program also is searching for interested coaches.
Wilson requests posts with charitable gambling to support the cause of growing the sport statewide by making donations to: Minnesota American Legion Foundation, with Fund 87 in the memo. He hopes to raise $10,000.
“We are looking into purchasing a trailer of equipment that can be used temporarily to get new teams started while they raise funds to get the equipment themselves,” Wilson said. “The hardest part is finding a coach and a place to shoot.”
Legion posts, with their large meeting rooms, meet the need.
The National American Legion 3-Position Air Rifle Tournament takes place at Hillsdale College on July 21-25.
“If we can get a Minnesota shooter in the National Championship, we hope it raises the profile of the program across our state,” Wilson said.
Minnesota American Legion Jr. Shooting Sports 3P State Championship
