The Alaska Nanook rifle
team, a squad synonymous
with success, began the
defense of their NCAA national
championship with
a season opening match
where they defeated the
University of Tennessee-
Martin Saturday morning
on home turf, the range in
the basement of the Patty
Center. The Nanooks’ score
was 4669. Tennessee’s
score was unavailable, but
the Nanooks reportedly
beat them by 200 points.
For those students new
to campus or not paying
attention to the banner
athletic program of the university,
the Nanooks have
been the dominant force in
a sport that is more about
concentration and breath
control than jumping high
or hitting hard, winning
eight of the past nine NCAA
titles. Only the University
of West Virginia Mountaineers
have controlled the
heights of the sport like the
Nanooks, winning 13 titles
during the ‘80s and early
‘90s.
Coach Dan Jordan has
been an integral part of the
success of the Alaska program
over the last decade.
Jordan, a native of Colorado,
who has been coaching
the Nanooks for three
years, also shot for UAF
from 1997 to 1999. He returned
to the area in 2005
and moved into his current
position after his predecessor
decided to leave the
post.
Building a program of the
current caliber has been a
mixture of name recognition
and salesmanship.
Jordan receives a large
amount of interest both in
the state and outside from
the top shooters in the
country, but the geographical
isolation of Fairbanks
often comes into play.
“It does help having the
big names in the school to
draw people up,” Jordan
mentions in regards to filling
out the team, "on the
other hand, you still have
to do a lot of recruiting.
You know, you’ve got recruit
the parents as much
as you do the kids. To convince
somebody to let their
daughter come to Alaska
from Pennsylvania, 5,000
miles away, there still
is some work to be done
there. It helps being the top
school, because it gets the
top people looking at you,
you don’t have to chase as
much."
The Nanooks feature
three shooters from the
Fairbanks area and one
from Eagle River, a higher
ratio of Alaskan shooters
on the team than there
have been in the past. Jordan
mentioned that their
presence shows the improvement
of local rifle programs
in the Alaskan high
schools in relation to the
rest of the country.
Jordan feels confident
about picking up a tenth
championship with his current
team. The Nanooks
graduated five shooters,
and three of the starting
four last year. Alaska also
brings back three shooters
who shot individually
in the NCAA championship
match.
"We’ve got a really good
team, a really young team.
So the key thing for me this
year is getting the young
shooters the match experience.
They can shoot the
scores, it’s a matter of doing
it in the bigger matches.
It’s working out really
well, we have a really deep
team this year," Jordan
added.
The rifles used by the
Nanooks are not what most
people are familiar with.
Two types of firearms are
used, the air rifle is a .177
caliber, twelve-pound,
highly technical piece of
equipment that the shooter
fires standing, trying to hit
a bulls-eye roughly the size
of a period in this article
from a distance of ten meters,
with only iron sights
to discern the target. The
other rifle involved is a
slightly heavier piece, firing
.22 long rifle ammunition,
shot in the standing, kneeling,
and prone positions.
The bulls-eye is different
for this discipline; a dot
one millimeter in diameter
must be completely shot
out of the target, requiring
a number of precise shots
in slightly different regions
of the target.
Student support at home
matches is helpful for the
athletes because it gives
them a different atmosphere
than in practice for
the matches. Coach Jordan
mentioned that spectators
in the seats helps to amplify
the match experience
and prepare the shooters
for high-pressure situations,
such as the NCAA
championships.
