The "State Champs" Story

It was an ordinary day. I'm trying to remember all that has transpired in the last few months. So, the story begins. Early September school starts and with that the start of the rifle season. Four years ago the HS Principal, Mr. Hower came to me and asked if I would coach the rifle team. It was only my second year of teaching and I figured if I wanted to keep teaching, I had better say yes. Well, you evidently don't need any qualifications to be the rifle coach, because I had only fired a gun once in my life and that was when I went hunting with my Uncle Bob. A shotgun! The rifle team uses Winchester 52D rifles with .22 long rifle shells. Hey, I still remember! Manheim Township entered the District III rifle league in 1936 and I was going to be the 5th coach in the storied history of rifle at MT. I had to do well, didn't I? I never told a soul that I knew nothing about guns. My gosh, I was from gun happy Lancaster County. My first year was spent learning how you wear the equipment, how a rifle match was run, the differences in the ammo and rifles and how to motivate the shooters. We did well the first year, but didn't win the league. The second and third years I learned more of the psychological parts of the sport of rifle. The group of students that I had started to develop as a team and accept me more as the coach. I had a group of freshmen students who started with me when I took over and who were becoming top notch shooters. Along the way I received valuable information from other coaches in the league, primarily Russ L. from CV, and from the officials who scored the rifle matches, primarily Fred S. whose daughter shot in the Olympics. It is 1972 now and my fourth year as coach. Two of my best shooters who would be seniors this year chose not to come out for the team for various reasons. I knew that may hurt our chances, but a few promising freshmen might fill the void. Boy did they ever! My captains for the year were seniors Dave Ament and Kristin Hill (one of 3 girls on the team who by the way are a calming influence for the team). In a rifle match your 10 best shooters go against the 10 best from the other team. Two shooters at a time from each team lay prone on a mat and have 15 minutes to complete their target which is a piece of paper about 9" x 12" with 10 bulls-eyes around the edge and one in the center for practice. The target is place 50 feet from the firing line. Your top score can be 100 or 10 points for each bulls-eye. If your shot touches just the center dot on the bull you are awarded an "X". Therefore a 100-10X is a perfect score. Nearly impossible! Your 5 best scores for the match determine your team score so a 500 is the best your team can do. If the score is tie after 5 shooters, you go to the next shooter. I have 17 shooters on my team this year and all are capable of firing 100 scores. As the season progressed we found that qualifying among our team for a match was sometimes harder than the match itself. We were good! We fired a 500 or better in 5 of our 12 league matches. Against our nemesis CV we had to go to the 9th shooter to determine the winner with the score being 894-893. We were beginning to realize just how good we were and they were trusting totally in me as a coach. You see from 50 feet away the bulls-eyes look like a big dot to the shooters who lay on the mat, a heavy rifle strapped to their arm that has only open sights, no magnification. I sit behind them with a spotting scope and after each shot tell them what adjustments to make on the rifle. Total trust in me is needed. We ended undefeated at 12-0 and headed to the Regional meet against Interboro, a team from the Philadelphia area. They had been State Champs for the previous 5 years and featured a team of mostly girls. They were great! Our team was better!! We beat them 700-699. Took 7 shooters, but we were up to the challenge with 8 of our shooters hitting the 100 mark. On to the State Final in State College, PA. We met Churchill, a team from Pittsburgh, and Pocono Mountain from the Northeast in the State Finals. During the finals each shooter had to fire at 2 targets with the top score being a 200. You did get 5 more minutes to complete your targets. Suspecting that we may have a chance this year, we started about 3 weeks before the end of the season to practice with 2 targets. I never mentioned why we did this at the time, but when we reached the finals they realized my intentions. Boy were we pumped that Saturday. My lead off tandem of Dave Ament and Steve Weibel both shot 200, with Dave's being a perfect 200-20X. By the time we were finished Bob Ulrich, Dave Miller, Jeff Brand and Suzi Zipperlein (200-20X also) had all shot 200. Other team members who shot that day were Kristin Hill 199, Tim Konrad 198, Jim Horst 196 and Charlie Morrison 195. Final Score: Manheim Township 1000, Churchill 999 and Pocono Mountain 990. It was over after our first tandem fired, really. The other teams couldn't catch us! WE WERE STATE CHAMPS! What a season. Dave Ament, Kristin Hill, Bob Ulrich, Suzi Zipperlein and Steve Weibel were all named 1st team Lancaster Co. All Stars with Tim Konrad, Jeff Brand and Dave Miller 2nd team. Dave Ament fired a 100 in every single match that year, an accomplishment that has never before or since been done in the State of Pennsylvania. In 1972 Dave fired forty-eight 100 scores during meets and practice. Kristin was right behind him when she captured the 1972 District Individual Meet with a 200-18X while Dave Ament was 4th with a 200-17X, Suzi was 6th with a 199-18X and Steve was 9th with a 199-17X. 10 team members fired perfect 100-10X targets in 1972. As a team we fired 311 100s that year in matches and practice. That's a lot of ammo and noise! The Lancaster Newspapers named our team the TEAM OF THE YEAR and the Pennsylvania House of Reps. presented citations to all team members honoring their achievement. In 2009 the 1972 Rifle Team was honored by Manheim Township School District with induction into the MT Sports Hall of Fame. When they called and told me, they asked if I would try to contact all the team members. Boy was I excited when I told my wife that I had to call all the kids to tell them the news. She said, "remember they're not kids anymore. Most are in their mid-fifties." You know, to me they will always be my kids. Had a great time meeting most of them again when we got together for a banquet and introduction at half-time of a MT football game. This team is very special to me, but also to Manheim Township since it is the ONLY team in the history of the school in any sport to ever win a STATE CHAMPIONSHIP. After the 1972 season the team presented me with a pewter plate that had all their names engraved around the edge and in the middle an inscription which read: Mr. Woods, "They were good, but not good enough!" It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. Names on the accompanied photo are: Front: Dave Aurand, Jim Horst, Dave Miller, Jeff Brand, John Garboczi, Middle: Tim Konrad, Mary Eckman, Suzi Zipperlein, Kristin Hill, Keith Williams, Steve Weibel, Rear: Dave Ament, Howie Eckhart, Bob Ulrich, Charlie Morrison, Scott Bennett, Jay Lockard, and LDub. Missing was Bob Spalding and Dave Hamby.