Author: Tom Davis

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Primary Arms has renewed its silver-level sponsorship for the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) National Championships. This program provides youth with an exciting competitive environment that fosters the values of sportsmanship and firearms safety.

The Scholastic Action Shooting Program is open to students from elementary school through college with coaching slots available to associated volunteers. Through SASP, young competitors team up to learn the foundations of marksmanship in a healthy, improvement-centric environment. Teams can participate in a variety of divisions, which include rimfire rifles/pistols, centerfire pistols, and pistol-caliber carbines (PCCs) as well as 10-meter air rifle and 10-meter air pistol.

The 2021 SASP National Championship will be held on July 10th through the 17th at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio. After supporting the SASP National Championship in 2020, Primary Arms proudly announced that it will remain a silver-level sponsor for their 2021 National Championship, providing both equipment and financial to support the competing teams and staff.

In response to the announcement, Scholastic Action Shooting Program’s National Director Rick Leach stated “We are excited to have Primary Arms Optics returning as a Silver Level sponsor of our youth development program. They produce some great products that help our athletes compete at a high level. If not for the support of great companies like Primary Arms Optics, we would not be able to continue to grow youth shooting sports in our nation.”

For the latest news on Primary Arms Optics, follow Primary Arms on social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

About Primary Arms Optics
Founded in 2007, Primary Arms Optics® is a leading innovator in tactical optics, offering a comprehensive selection of rifle scopes, prism scopes, red dot sights, optic mounts, and accessories. Primary Arms’ exclusive ACSS reticles combine bullet drop compensation, range estimation, wind holds, and moving target leads into one cohesive, easy-to-use system. While traditional reticles rely on complex mathematics and subtensions, ACSS reticles feed the most important information directly to the marksman, allowing them to take faster shots with greater precision. Primary Arms Optics produces several tiers of products to meet the needs of any budget. The premier PLx® optics line prioritizes clarity and craftsmanship with first-class materials. The mid-tier GLx optics incorporate premium technologies with approachable pricing, while the popular SLx® optics offer both proven reliability and value. Every Primary Arms Optics product is hand-inspected at their Houston-based headquarters, and all their products come with a Primary Arms lifetime warranty.

For more information on Primary Arms, visit the company website at www.primaryarms.com or contact:

Dina Sanders, Brand Marketing Manager
dsanders@primaryarms.com

TANDEMKROSS, manufacturer of aftermarket parts upgrades for the action shooting sports competitor, has committed to increasing its support of the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) to the Platinum Sponsor level. 

“TANDEMKROSS is proud to sponsor the 2021 SASP shooting season,” said Bryan Haaker, TANDEMKROSS Business Development Director. “We firmly believe that it is an incredibly effective program to educate young people on their 2nd Amendment rights, how to responsibly handle firearms and bring the shooting sports back into the schools where they belong; right beside basketball and football. There is no better gun control program than education.”

“TANDEMKROSS has been an incredible sponsor and ally since they came on board as a Bronze Sponsor back in 2018,” said Rick Leach, SASP National Director. “TANDEMKROSS is forward-thinking and really focuses a lot of their efforts on supporting junior shooters, who are the future of action shooting sports. TANDEMKROSS has been incredibly supportive in our mission and always goes above and beyond to help throughout the season. We are very humbled and thankful that TANDEMKROSS has renewed and increased their sponsorship of our program!”

Long-time Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) sponsors, Federal and CCI Ammunition have renewed their support of youth shooting sports as Platinum-Level Sponsors. 

“Federal and CCI Ammunition are proud to continue our partnership with the Scholastic Action Steel Program. The program continues to grow leaps and bounds while offering youth a safe and high-quality competitive program. The desire and passion these kids put into the sport deserves the best performing and highest quality ammunition available. Our employees are proud to provide high-quality American-made ammunition for the SASP participants to reach their goals.” Dan Compton, Rimfire Product Line Manager for Federal and CCI Ammunition.

Rick Leach, SASP National Director, commented, “Having Platinum-Level Sponsors like Federal and CCI Ammunition continue their long-standing support is a reminder of the importance our industry places on supporting youth development through shooting sports. We look forward to having their vital support this year and many more.”
 

For more information on Federal ammunition, go to www.federalpremium.com of CCI ammunition, go to www.cci-ammunition.com

For full procedure details and application document, please visit https://sssfonline.org/scholarships

Scholastic Action Shooting Program National Director, Rick Leach is proud to name Madeline Maggard as a new Texas State Advisor for SASP. Madeline joins Harold Carter as State Advisors, serving over thirty SASP youth shooting teams in the Lone Star State. 

Madeline selflessly dedicates much of her time to youth shooting sports. As an educator at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, Madeline is also the head coach of the Jesuit Competitive Shooting Teams, which participate in both the SCTP and SASP youth shooting sports programs. “Madeline has also been serving as a SCTP state advisor but as a competitive pistol shooter herself, we recognize where her passion is,” said Leach. 

“I’m excited and honored to join SASP’s great team of like-minded enthusiasts and share my passion for advancing the sport of youth shooting,” exclaimed Maggard. “I’m a pistol girl myself and love shooting steel alongside my athletes! Let’s be loud and proud, y’all!” Maggard loves to compete with her Glock in GSSF matches but also competes with rimfire divisions.

SASP’s State Advisors throughout the country work diligently to both assist current teams and expand participation in their respective states. “Someone recently asked me why some states have or need more than one state advisor,” Leach reflected. “Wisconsin has historically been the largest participating state in the SASP program and has two state advisors. Texas is currently number two in SASP but has four times the land area that of WI at five times the population at, 29 million residents. Based on those stats, Texas should be the largest participating SASP state. With that land area, we definitely need more than one state advisor to spread the word about the SASP in Texas.”

Guest blog by SASP Coach Bill Perkins

With the recent addition of international air disciplines to the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP), Arizona teams were eager to participate in the USA Shooting Arizona State Pistol Championship on Tuesday December 29^th at the Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club in Mesa, Arizona. Many of these SASP athletes had competed in action shooting matches for years but were new to international-style pistol matches.  With only one month to prepare, three teams practiced for the event, with ten athletes choosing to compete for the State Championship.

With years of muscle memory tasked for speed, these young action shooting athletes had to slow things down and hit very precise shots at the Olympic 10M pistol event.

Instead of multiple steel target arrays, international-style pistol matches require the athletes to shoot from the standing-position, one-handed at a target with approximately a one-inch “10-ring”, located 32’ 9.7” away.

The equipment the athletes use and method of match preparation is also very different from action shooting.  Olympic air pistols were borrowed, practices scheduled, guns zeroed, familiarization with the rules and new performance routines were learned by these athletes.  When the athletes are on the firing line, coaching is not allowed, so coaches must properly prepare their athletes ahead of time with the full knowledge they are going to need during the match.

After the fast, but focused month of preparation, it all came down to the 60-shot, 90-minute match of the USA Shooting Arizona State Pistol Championship.

Congratulations to University of Arizona WildGats President, Julia for her 1^st place finish.  Second place went to Theodore from Straight Shooters.  Third place went to AJ K from the Venture Crew shooting team, Baden-Powell. 

Currently, 46 states have USA Shooting rifle matches and 30 states have USA Shooting pistol matches.  With SASP’s addition of 10 Meter Air Rifle, 10 Meter Air Pistol and Sport Pistol, youth athletes throughout the country can experience the excitement of team-based shooting sports in both the wildly exciting sport of action shooting and the disciplined precision of international air disciplines. As the Official Youth Feeder Program for USA Shooting, the SASP gives opportunities for young athletes to pursue their Olympic dreams! Julia and her coach Bill Perkins of the WildGats attended SASP’s 2019 Junior Olympic Development Camp. Watch for opportunities for SASP athletes to participate in future Olympic Development Camps.

Special thanks to Arizona Match Director John Karadsheh, who is the Head Coach for the Rio Salado Juniors Rifle Team.  Many of his athletes have been training for years for this match.  SASP Coach Bill Perkins found out about the upcoming Arizona State Championship just six weeks before the event and asked if pistol was offered.  John petitioned USA Shooting to amend his 10M air rifle match to include 10M air pistol.  When USA Shooting approved his request, the word went out to several SASP teams that this opportunity was available to our athletes. Thanks to Marc Orvin for officiating and teaching our action shooting athletes and coaches more about International style shooting.  The 2020 Arizona Championship is in the books!

Our first annual Valentine’s Classic kicks off Sunday, February 14, 2021 and closes Sunday, March 7, 2021 at 10 PM CST!  Get your team registered before noon CST, February 12, 2021, to get in on this virtual match from your home range! All scores must be sent in by 10:00 PM CST on Sunday, March 7, 2021. 

The match will be open to all disciplines.  Regional medals will be sent to the top three squads in each discipline for Rookie, Intermediate, Senior, Open and Collegiate divisions.  

Individual high overall medals for male and female, 1^st – 3^rd, will be awarded for rimfire pistol, stock service pistol, and rifle (all three rifle disciplines combined).  The HOA’s will be with all age divisions combined. 

We do not want a lack of ammunition to stop kids from being able to participate. If an athlete competes in Rimfire Disciplines for one of our regionals (including the Valentines Classic) between now and your official state SASP match, this will not lock them into shooting rimfire for the entire 2020-2021 season.

Athletes must be registered with their annual fee paid and their Consent & Waiver form in to the national office before participating.  There must also be a registered and paid coach for the team to participate. These important forms can be found in the Resources + Forms section of the mySASP website.

When you register your team please use the first available squads in the match.  It does not matter what day/time you sign up for the virtual match.  Once you are registered you can shoot any day in the designated dates for the match.