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http://www.dominionpost.com/a/sports/2004/01/18/aa/
Gun Bash aim: Give rifle club shot in the arm

BOB HERTZEL
It is David Hardesty's worst nightmare, for it just won't go away, this memory that is the WVU rifle team.
It has become his own personal Scott McBrien, haunting the WVU president at every turn.
Politicians like Michael Oliverio, Barbara Fleishauer and Cindy Frich have become involved. This being an election year in a state where guns are next to Godliness means they figure to push hard for the return of the sport Hardesty and his athletic department henchmen have tried to kill.
And the public has reacted strongly. With no alternative but to form a "club" team for a sport that gave WVU 13 NCAA team championships, 18 NCAA individual champions, an incredible 293 All-Americans and 12 Olympians to represent America far better than the string of other athletic department thugs who parade through this newspaper's daily report on a regular basis, the remnants of the team go on.
Their status as a club sport is an insult to the proud history of rifle at WVU, putting it on the same level as ultimate Frisbee, badminton and table tennis.
But like the Mountaineer who symbolizes the school, armed at every event and appearance with a rifle as if to emphasize the importance of the gun to the school, the state and its people, they are too proud, too headstrong, too determined to give in.
While Ryan Baum transferred to Alaska-Fairbanks after the fall 2003 semester, six members of the deceased rifle team remain in school, practicing daily at the WVU rifle range.
Nicole Allaire, Jon Hammond Kincardinshire, Eric Hensil, Brian Launer, Kristin Scott and Adam Somers are still pushing for a return to varsity status. There sport may have been taken from them but their dignity was not.
They know that in May a symbolic wrecking ball is scheduled to do away with the school's rifle range, turn it into storage or office space, leaving neutered the most basic of equipment for a team -- a field upon which to play.
The school says nothing about it these days. In the past they implied that rifle had to go because it was a dying sport, indicated the NCAA might do away with the sport entirely, forgetting to note its protected status as an Olympic sport, meaning special legislation would have to be introduced before the sport could be dropped from NCAA sanction.
There were even references to there being no more than 12 schools still sponsoring rifle, but the most recent NCAA data list 47 teams from 40 schools participating.
WVU isn't among them.
The rifle club members have scrambled to raise money to remain afloat and learned that the public supports them from the heart of the capital to the most remote hollow of the state.
The fund-raising effort will get a huge boost thanks to Bryan Henry, of Colonial Arms Gun Shop, who has put together the 2004 Gun Bash and Prize Giveaway to support the rifle team.
It's scheduled for Mylan Park at noon July 31. There will be $200,000 in prizes given away every two minutes with revenues expected to reach half a million dollars. The idea is raise enough money for the team to continue as a club sport and to begin an endowment while building a groundswell of public support to push for a return of rifle to a varsity sport.
The grand prize will be not far short of winning the lottery, as they have commissioner Orange County Choppers to build a special WVU Rifle Team theme bike worth in the exclusive neighborhood of $100,000.
With a prize like that, they might even get Hardesty to part with $50 to take a chance.
BOBHERTZEL is sports editor of The Dominion Post. He can be reached at [email protected]
Having close ties to the University and its athletic dept, I was appalled when I heard that the West Virginia rifle team had been discontinued last fall. It took us a while to get momentum but there is an organized effort to bring back the team. If anyone is interested, I can post e-mail for the school president and contact information for Bryan Henry (the organizer of the Gun Bash).
Gun Bash aim: Give rifle club shot in the arm

BOB HERTZEL
It is David Hardesty's worst nightmare, for it just won't go away, this memory that is the WVU rifle team.
It has become his own personal Scott McBrien, haunting the WVU president at every turn.
Politicians like Michael Oliverio, Barbara Fleishauer and Cindy Frich have become involved. This being an election year in a state where guns are next to Godliness means they figure to push hard for the return of the sport Hardesty and his athletic department henchmen have tried to kill.
And the public has reacted strongly. With no alternative but to form a "club" team for a sport that gave WVU 13 NCAA team championships, 18 NCAA individual champions, an incredible 293 All-Americans and 12 Olympians to represent America far better than the string of other athletic department thugs who parade through this newspaper's daily report on a regular basis, the remnants of the team go on.
Their status as a club sport is an insult to the proud history of rifle at WVU, putting it on the same level as ultimate Frisbee, badminton and table tennis.
But like the Mountaineer who symbolizes the school, armed at every event and appearance with a rifle as if to emphasize the importance of the gun to the school, the state and its people, they are too proud, too headstrong, too determined to give in.
While Ryan Baum transferred to Alaska-Fairbanks after the fall 2003 semester, six members of the deceased rifle team remain in school, practicing daily at the WVU rifle range.
Nicole Allaire, Jon Hammond Kincardinshire, Eric Hensil, Brian Launer, Kristin Scott and Adam Somers are still pushing for a return to varsity status. There sport may have been taken from them but their dignity was not.
They know that in May a symbolic wrecking ball is scheduled to do away with the school's rifle range, turn it into storage or office space, leaving neutered the most basic of equipment for a team -- a field upon which to play.
The school says nothing about it these days. In the past they implied that rifle had to go because it was a dying sport, indicated the NCAA might do away with the sport entirely, forgetting to note its protected status as an Olympic sport, meaning special legislation would have to be introduced before the sport could be dropped from NCAA sanction.
There were even references to there being no more than 12 schools still sponsoring rifle, but the most recent NCAA data list 47 teams from 40 schools participating.
WVU isn't among them.
The rifle club members have scrambled to raise money to remain afloat and learned that the public supports them from the heart of the capital to the most remote hollow of the state.
The fund-raising effort will get a huge boost thanks to Bryan Henry, of Colonial Arms Gun Shop, who has put together the 2004 Gun Bash and Prize Giveaway to support the rifle team.
It's scheduled for Mylan Park at noon July 31. There will be $200,000 in prizes given away every two minutes with revenues expected to reach half a million dollars. The idea is raise enough money for the team to continue as a club sport and to begin an endowment while building a groundswell of public support to push for a return of rifle to a varsity sport.
The grand prize will be not far short of winning the lottery, as they have commissioner Orange County Choppers to build a special WVU Rifle Team theme bike worth in the exclusive neighborhood of $100,000.
With a prize like that, they might even get Hardesty to part with $50 to take a chance.
BOBHERTZEL is sports editor of The Dominion Post. He can be reached at [email protected]
Having close ties to the University and its athletic dept, I was appalled when I heard that the West Virginia rifle team had been discontinued last fall. It took us a while to get momentum but there is an organized effort to bring back the team. If anyone is interested, I can post e-mail for the school president and contact information for Bryan Henry (the organizer of the Gun Bash).
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)):banghead: It seems like most pro-gun gators are just silent but i've met many pro-RKBA owners here.
At least he is very pro gun and would probably be one to want to be on a shooting team.
They love to pusblish anti 2A stuff, so knowing the alligator they dont need the other side (like their stunt of promoting EVERY demorat in the last election and handing the papers out AT THE BALLOTS and saying this is who you should vote for and what to vote for).