Matt Rawlings pushes a broom across the floor, collecting his bullet shells. With his Friday practice winding down, the senior Nanook rifle team member is ready to clean up his mess.

His teammates say that's just like him.

"He's like our little Suzie Homemaker," says senior Kimberly Harris.

And still more agree.

"His nickname could be Martha Stewart," says freshman Billy Galligan, chuckling. "He's a good cook."

That's perhaps the secret talent of Rawlings, the Alaska rifle shooter most likely to show up at the 2008 Olympics.

On the range, Rawlings, 22, is a serious shooter, focused and patient.

But off the floor, his strength is how he interacts with his teammates, even if it does occasionally involve baking, says coach Dan Jordan.

"He's definitely the one who looks to bring the team together," Jordan says.

Rawlings says his team is always doing something together, whether it's studying or having fun. To this 5' 10" native of Wharton, Texas, the Nanooks are more than a team.

"Other teams I've been on, it's more like you know them really well than being a family," he says.

With the Nanooks, though, it's different, Rawlings says.

"We have fights. We get pissed off at each other. We help each other," he says.

Rawlings was already competing in the big leagues with the U.S. National Team when UAF scouted him in 2001.

And since coming on board, he's had some amazing feats. In December 2005, he accomplished what few marksmen ever accomplish by shooting a perfect 600 at the USA Shooting 3X Air Gun Championships in Colorado.

"He's a pretty good shooter," says senior Matthias Dierolf.

His rifle is unlike any on his team. Clay has replaced parts of the wood. Miniature lead weights sit on the back of the gun. It looks nothing like how it would have out of the box.

"Matt probably has the most modified gun," coach Jordan says. "He definitely likes to cut and paste."

Now Rawlings' sights are on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in hopes of following in the footsteps of former teammate Matt Emmons, who shot in Athens in 2004.

Rawlings spent most of this summer at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and he plans to head back after graduating.

If Rawlings didn't have to, he'd just shoot and not do college.

"Oh yeah. I don't hate school, but it definitely plays a toll," he says.

Still, he hasn't had many problems balancing school with shooting, he says.

Usually most professors understand.

"But I've had problems where I've had a multiple choice test became an essay," he says. "It was horrible."

For now, though, Rawlings just has to survive two more semesters and one more season.

He says he'll spend this year "not having a life." When off the range, the team's often stuck in the library, he says.

"That's not saying we don't have time to have fun," he says. "But it's a sacrifice."