FORT WORTH — Last year, Texas Christian became the first all-women’s rifle team to win the N.C.A.A. championship, defeating seven other teams that were either coed or all men. Among their opponents were teams from Army and Navy, whose best shooters were excellent, but not as good as T.C.U’s.
The T.C.U. rifle coach Karen Monez will send out three members of last year’s N.C.A.A. championship team when the Horned Frogs defend their title.
The Horned Frogs will attempt to defend their title when the 2011 championships are held Friday and Saturday at Columbus State in Georgia. T.C.U. is led by three returning members of the championship team, the sophomores Sarah Scherer, Sarah Beard and Caitlin Morrissey. Each of them has made an all-American team in either the small-bore or air-rifle event.
It seems fitting that their coach, Karen Monez, has a framed photograph in her office of Annie Oakley, the legendary Old West sharpshooter who was the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in the late 19th century. Its caption reads, “Any woman who does not thoroughly enjoy tramping across the country on a clear frosty morning with a good gun and a pair of dogs does not know how to enjoy life.”
In N.C.A.A. competition, each contestant gets 60 shots. In small bore (.22 caliber), shooting is done from three positions — prone, kneeling and standing. The air rifle (.177 caliber) is all standing.
The shooting is not rapid fire. Shooters have up to two hours to complete their shots. It is a slow, methodical, intense sport.
“When you’re standing there, it looks like you’re not doing much,” Beard said. “But when we come off the line, we’re starving because it’s so much mental work.”
T.C.U. is an all-women’s team by design. It’s not that Monez has anything against having men on the team, but T.C.U. restricts it to women as part of complying with Title IX requirements. There are 26 Division I rifle teams.
Monez said there is no additional joy in women beating men.
“Not really, because all the shooters at this level came up through the junior ranks,” she said. “They’ve been shooting against the guys their whole shooting career. We’re just an equal sport. But it was great as the first all-female team to accomplish that. That was outstanding.”
The T.C.U. team members come from five states — Texas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas and Rhode Island. Last year, the team included Simone Riford, who went to the same Hawaiian high school as President Obama. When the Horned Frogs were honored for their championship with a visit to the White House, Riford showed the president her class ring.
Monez, who is in her seventh season as T.C.U.’s coach, said recruiting is done at junior events and the shooting community is such a small one that all competing colleges have access to the best shooters for several years before they reach college age.
With only 3.6 scholarships for the 10-woman team, Monez has a challenge dividing the money, but most of the shooters also qualify for academic scholarships.
This year’s team includes the junior Mattie Brogdon, who did not qualify for the N.C.A.A. tournament as a sophomore, but was part of the 2009 team that finished fifth. The other team member is the freshman Catherine Green.
Monez has spent more than 35 years in competitive shooting — including three years with the Army marksmanship unit and 22 more as a member of the Army reserve — and she has had a distinguished career. She won 55 individual titles and performed at such a high level that Shooting Sports Magazine named her one of the 50 greatest shooters of the 20th century.
T.C.U. has 23 consecutive victories and its obvious goal is to add another victory and another title. But the athletes say they are philosophical about their chances.
“I kind of have the attitude that we’re going to go out there and shoot our match,” Morrissey said. “If that happens to put us on top, that’s fantastic. Of course we’ll walk around and say we’re double champions.
“But if someone has a better day than us, we can’t control that. I’m still going to be proud that I am on a team, and we can walk about and say we won a national championship. That’s something a lot of people don’t get to do.”
I thought about the team being restricted to women because of Title IX was pretty interesting, because that doesn't seem fair. Women should have an equal opportunity for sports, not a better opportunity than guys.
In the same way I'm conflicted about girls on "boys" teams - for example there was a case a few weeks ago of a boy who defaulted rather than face a girl wrestler.
What happens if a boy wants to get on the girl's basketball team? Will he be allowed?
There are sports - such as equestrian, shooting, archery, etc., where, with strength and speed taken out of the equation, and only skill needed, women can and should compete on an equal footing with men (which is why it annoys me that the Olympic shooting competitions are segregated. But in the Olympics, Muslims take part, and Allah forbid that they should be beaten by women!)
But sports which require brute strength and speed, such as football, there's got to be a certain point where women simply can't compete, because an average sized guy could mash her into a pulp without even trying, and if you watch guys on the football field, they try to mash each other to a pulp, and won't take it easy on a girl. Nor should they - on the football field.
Ah, well, philosophical conundrums aside, I thought it was an interesting article to share.
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