Wildcat Battalion Rifle Team

The Wildcat Battalion Rifle Team fires the Olympic sport of 3-Position Air Rifle (3-PAR) in Junior Olympics, JROTC Service, Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), and American Legion competitions.  We are members of the North Alabama Rifle League (NARL) which currently consists of 18 schools.  Weekly league competitions begin in October and end in February.  The NARL Championships are held each year the 1st or 2nd Saturday in March.  Fort Payne Rifle Team  has won the NARL Championship eight of the last ten seasons.  The Wildcat Battalion Rifle Team represented Fort Payne at the JROTC Service Southeast Regionals,  the CMP Southeast Regionals, and and the CMP Nationals in Camp Perry, Ohio.  2021-2022 season, the Wildcat Battalion Rifles were once again undefeated and the North Alabama Rifle League Champions.

I am proud to report that our shooters performed very well at the State Championships in Anniston on 6-7 January.  Official results are at posted at https://ct.thecmp.org/app/v1/index.php?do=match&task=edit&tab=results&match=16167 

We had a rough start on Saturday morning, shooting well below our average scores in the NRA 3x20 match where we finished #4 of 13 teams.  Fowler finished #7 of 60 competitors.  We fared some better Saturday afternoon during the NRA 60-shot standing, earning bronze for the team and with two shooters in the top 10 (Thomason  #7 and Fowler #10.) 

Sunday morning we were back up to par during the CMP Cup 3x20 taking the team gold medal with three shooters in the top 10 out of 68 competitors (Fowler #6, Sparks #8, and Mckaig #9) and Thomason and Robison in the top 25%. 

McKaig earned silver in the afternoon’s Junior Olympics men’s 60-shot standing qualifier with Thomason at #4.

Fowler also earned silver in the Junior Olympics women’s 60-shot standing qualifier.  Robison earned bronze and Sparks finished fourth in this event. 

Due to our low scores on Saturday, the team finished in fourth place overall for the State Championship, but I am still pleased with their performance.  I am very proud of Kristen Fowler, Alex McKaig, Devin Thomason, Lilly Sparks, and Jade Robison.  I believe they represented the JROTC program and Fort Payne High School very well. 

Our next major event is the JROTC Service Regionals at Anniston 8-10 February where we will compete against qualified Army JROTC teams from across the Southeast.  If we shoot well at this event, we will qualify for the Nationals JROTC Championship held 22-24 March at Camp Perry, Ohio. 

Our schedule is full for the remainder of the year:

• We are currently in week 9 of 18 for the North Alabama Rifle League with a record of 8 and 1.
• We fire the American Legion Postal  and the CMP Postal NLT 1 February.
• The American Legion Alabama Commander’s Cup is 3 March at the Anniston Range.
• The North Alabama Rifle League Championship is 7 April at the Anniston Range.
• If we qualify during the postal, the CMP Regionals are 12-14 April at the CMP Range in Anniston. 

The team is adamant that they are going to either the JROTC of CMP Nationals.  If their work ethic is any indicator, I believe they will make it.