Team Gotta at Fort Benning 2013. Coach Tim Huff, Adam Thomas, Adam Rusling, Ben Huff, Keith Neher, Coach Rob Neher. The team won both Rimfire and Production divisions, earning $13,000 in endowment prize money.
Fort Benning, Georgia., – In the world of Scholastic Steel Challenge (SSC), the oddball crew from Northwest Washington called “Team Gotta” continues to break records. This past weekend, they set a new collegiate record at the SSC Collegiate nationals (209.37), set the individual record (45.22), took home $13,000 in prize money, and carried off two of SSC’s traveling cups!
For a private gun club team in tiny Custer, Wash., to win a Collegiate national demands respect, especially when your opponents include the well-financed, well-coached US Military Academy at West Point. USMA “Black” beat their collegiate record of 265.49 this year by almost 30 seconds (a huge margin in this sport) — but it wasn’t enough.
Team Gotta won the centerfire event, and secured the win in the first-ever SSC Rimfire event as well, outpacing USMA “Black” 197.40 to 203.96.
SSC shooting is scored by time, and pits 4-man teams of student marksman against arrays of steel targets set anywhere from 7 to 35 yards away. Students engage them with .22 rimfire and 9mm handguns, shooting as rapidly as accuracy will permit. While the West Point crew had accuracy and consistency, “Team Gotta” came with accuracy AND blazing speed.
On the course called “Smoke and Hope” Team Captain Keith Neher (Bellingham, Wash.,) fired five shots at five different targets, striking each in just 1.58 seconds – an SSC course record.
“If I hadn’t seen it myself, I’d have said it couldn’t be done,” said West Point coach Maj. Chris Kliewer.
Team Gotta’s new record of 209.37 comes despite the fact that Team Gotta went to its back-up shooter, Ben Huff (Blaine, Wash.), when their top scorer (Sean Hughen-Coiro, Bellingham) had to withdraw due to illness.
How did Adam Rusling (Bellingham), Adam Thomas (Sedro-Woolley), Sean Hughen-Coiro (Bellingham), Keith Neher (Bellingham), and Ben Huff (Blaine) become the terror of the game?
“Lots of work,” says Neher. “We’ve been shooting together for three, four years now.”
Top scorer Adam Rusling’s 45.22 destroyed the previous record of 52.86 set last year by teammate Hughen-Coiro. Rusling is a relative newcomer to the team, having competed nationally for a little more than two years.
“Team Gotta” qualified for collegiate division because its central figures attend Bellingham Technical College and Whatcom Community College – both located in Bellingham, Washington. The team practices at Custer Sportsmen’s Club in Custer, Wash.
They’re due to appear at the Washington State SSC Championship in Ephrata, Wash., later this year.
(Update: The team did appear, out-shooting their local rivals the Renton Steel Dragons.)