Author: Tom Davis

Exciting News for Youth Shooting Sports Enthusiasts!

The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is proud to announce its new role as the governing body for the Progressive Position Pistol (PPP) Program! This exciting development marks a new chapter for the PPP program, which continues to thrive through a strong and ongoing partnership with USA Shooting, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), and the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP).

To celebrate the regrowth of this dynamic program, we are thrilled to announce the 2025 Progressive Position Pistol Junior National Event, which will take place August 1–3, 2025, at the Missouri Marksmanship Education Center in Columbia, MO.

As part of this program’s mission to support young athletes, the PPP serves as a feeder program for the Intercollegiate Pistol Program, making this event a key recruiting opportunity for collegiate coaches. Graduating seniors and rising stars will have the chance to showcase their talents in front of coaches while taking their first steps toward collegiate competition. Additionally, this program provides aspiring athletes with a pathway to represent Team USA on Junior or National Teams, with sights set on competing in the Olympics.

This event offers youth shooters the opportunity to showcase their skills, compete on a national stage, and experience the camaraderie and sportsmanship that make the shooting sports community so special.

Mark your calendars and join us in Columbia, Missouri, for this incredible event that promises to highlight the future of competitive pistol shooting! For more information, please contact James Hall or stay tuned to the official SSSF website and follow us on social media for updates.

2025 Progressive Position Pistol Rule Book

The updated 2025 PPP Rule Book is now available! This document contains the latest guidelines, standards, and competition requirements for athletes, coaches, and event organizers. Be sure to review the rulebook ahead of the Junior National Event.

At the 2024 Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) Nationals we set a new world record for largest Action Shooting Match ever held with 2601 entries. We could not pull it off without the assistance of many volunteers. This year SASP had 242 people volunteer. They donated a total of over 1800 hours of their time to support our youth development program. They served as Safety Officers, Score Keepers, Water Deliverers, and helped with set up, and tear down. This year due to the generosity of our great sponsors like Founding Partner Sponsors GLOCK and RUGER, Bronze Sponsors SK, Hunters HD Gold and Grizzly-Ears, the following volunteers were randomly drawn to win prizes including firearms.  If you are interested in volunteering for our 2025 National Championships July 12 – 19^th, 2025 at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo Ohio contact John Leach our SASP Director of Development at john@mysasp.com. A special thanks to all our volunteers and sponsors for their support.

Congratulations to our winners! These multi-discipline athletes competed at our National Championship shooting skeet, trap, sporting clays, iron pistol, rifle, and 1911! Thanks to all our great sponsors for providing these great prizes. 

1. SKB RS300 Target Model 12 GA Shotgun, RUGER 10-22 fully Customized by TandemKross rifle, Browning Buck Mark Camper Pistol

2. Mossberg Pro Series 930 12 GA Shotgun

3. Certificate for a GLOCK of your choice

4. Rossi RS22 .22LR Rifle

5. Case Winchester Shotgun Shells.

Thank you to everyone who supported SASP and your local teams by purchasing SASP National Raffle tickets. Congratulations to the following winners.

M. Oday, Texas SK Arms VA Colt the Last State of Franklin

J. Rogish, Florida Ruger PC Carbine fully accessorized by Tandemkross

K. Hackbarth, Wisconsin GLOCK 34 Customized by Agency Arms

T. Smith, Texas Browning 1911 .380 Medallion Pro

R. Hodson, Wisconsin CZ-USA Bobwhite G2

J. Goodwin, California BERETTA 3022 Tomcat

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2024 Nationals Passport. 450 were taken out and of those returned 78 were returned completed with 13 of the 15 squares. Congratulations to the following winners.

C.G. Russell of Tennessee – Certificate for a GLOCK of your choice.

A. LaForge of Wisconsin – Certificate for Ruger PC Carbine.

E. Esterline Ohio – Certificate for Grizzly Ears hearing protection.

Thanks to our great sponsors for their support the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation our programs and youth shooting sports.

At the time I was coaching trap so I said well, I’ll just make her a trap shooter like the rest of them and keep this easy… she had other plans. She’s always had the frame of mind that she didn’t want to do what everybody else does. So soccer and other ball sports were out of the question. I said okay, you don’t like shotguns let’s go shoot some pistols and that was that!

-Dave Jackley, Abby’s father and Wilmot Panthers Head Coach

Now in her eighth year as a Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) athlete, Abby Jackley has joined Ruger’s Pro Staff team. Signing two other athletes her age, Ruger has recognized that some of the fastest action shooting athletes in the world are youth, most of them getting their start in the SASP. With a truly even playing field, the SASP is proud to provide a youth program in which athletes from grade school through college can compete and grow in a sport where there is no such thing as being “benched”.

How did you get started in the shooting sports?

“I got started through my parents. My dad has been a trap coach as long as I can remember. He coached my brothers when they shot trap and I tried it out when I was in sixth grade and I honestly hated it. I was bored out of my mind! I shot it for a year and I just didn’t quite like it but my dad mentioned that one of the other coaches knew of the pistol team through the same high school. He didn’t know much about it so we both went I tried it out. At first he was just a parent helping out, being there with me. I started shooting that a bunch and then now he’s the head coach of our team!

I was Team Captain my senior year of high school and during that time I took the SASP coaches course with my parents. I now help out with all the rookies and anyone first starting out, especially left-handed shooters. I’m left-handed so they all end up asking me because no one knows how to help out a left-handed shooter!”

Tell us how you joined Team Ruger at such a young age!

“It was about 2 years ago when Rick Leach introduced me to Paul Pluff with Ruger at Nationals. He really liked the way I shot and I just got talking with him. We tried out some of his guns at the Ruger booth at Nationals and he said he would love to expand our connections and work with you on our Pro Staff. Once I turned 18, I joined team Ruger and was joined by two other athletes, Kaleb Klein and Connor Knapp. So we all joined together as “Junior Team Ruger”. It was really a different experience I never would have seen if I asked myself when I first started shooting SASP. I never would have believed being on a Pro Staff team, especially for a company like Ruger.”

Tell us what its like being an athlete in the Scholastic Action Shooting Program?

“Getting started in the SASP program, finding a local team I think is really something great. I think it’s a great program to get started in and it’s a great way to learn basic handling skills of pistols and rifles. The team is kids that maybe they go to school with and even if they don’t know anyone, it’s a great place to make friends because everyone’s their age and everyone’s doing the same thing. I think it’s it’s really a open environment even for families. Even the parents don’t quite know about the sport or even about shooting, everyone is very open and willing to help you out. Athletes can use team gear to get your feet wet and try it out before you really jump in but I think it’s a very open door for new families.”

As a parent and coach, was it like going through the SSSF Action Shooting Sports Coach Training?

“Everyone did their own their own online portion and then the range day was fun. I was probably the least confident but it helped me too. I do more of the administrative part of the coaching, so the experience actually built up my confidence to go out on the range. I think it really helped to learn about about the program more in general, the whole organizational aspect and how it sort of builds and can help become the next step for other things. It really made us look outside of our local club. Since taking the course, we’ve actually encouraged a lot of our parents on our team to become coaches rather than just volunteers. They’ve taken the entire program all the way through the field course and we now have eight coaches total for our team instead of just one coach. The parent involvement has been huge and it’s really helped gain their confidence and understanding what their kids are doing and shooting so it’s sort of brought the whole family out on the range.”

As a parent, how have you seen Abby grow since joining the program?

I’ve really seen her confidence grow. From just being one of the athletes on the team, to then being a junior coach… She’s been proud of what she’s done and I think she sort of drug us along with her but it’s been a fun adventure!