Rebel Rifle Opens Season, Aims For Success

The Ole Miss Rebel Rifle team will open the 2009-10 season on Thursday at the Memphis Tiger Invitational before returning to Oxford to host the Ole Miss Invitational this Friday-Sunday at the Patricia C. Lamar National Guard Readiness Center.

Head coach Valerie Boothe enters the 2009-10 season with one goal in mind, returning to the NCAA Championships. After reaching the NCAAs four years ago, Boothe has been building her squad with the goal of returning to postseason competition. With four shooters back from last year's squad, including the 2009 GARC air rifle champion Meredith Holman, she believes the Rebels have the talent and experience returning to make a run at the postseason once again.

"We are very excited about our chances this season," said the 2006 Collegiate Rifle Coaches' Association National Coach of the Year. "We have four established returnees coming back, one new addition who is a bundle of energy and two walk-ons. I think we have a chance for a really good year. Right now it looks like our starters are going to be our four returnees. We have no seniors on the team, but I think we could have really good depth. The more experience our younger players get, the more success it is going to bring to the program."

Holman headlines the returnees after a breakout sophomore campaign. The Annandale, Va., native set a school record with a mark of 595 in the air rifle en route to claiming the 2009 GARC individual air title in March. Holman, who was selected a team captain before this season, led the Rebels last year with a 582 air rifle average and finished the '09 season by posting an air score of at least 582 in her final nine matches. Boothe believes Holman will be among the squad's best leaders this season.

"I think the team elected Meredith team captain because she has a way of motivating people. She is a silent motivator. When she comes around her teammates want to do better. She has this energy when she competes. They want to see her succeed and want to match her success. She gained a lot of experience this summer shooting at different matches, and she also has her little sister (Emma Holman) here now so that can be another motivator. She has shot some consistently high scores, but she has yet to hit her consistency range. She has her highs and lows like everyone, but this season I really expect her to jump in there and stay in there."

In addition to Holman, the Rebels return a pair of junior starters in Erica Swanson and Colleen Tillson. Swanson finished the year strong by claiming a top-10 finish at the U.S. Junior Olympics, while Tillson, the team's 2009 Rookie of the Year, finished third on the squad with an air rifle average of 576 last year.

"Erica was starting to get burned out toward the end of last season, her scores dropped and she was getting frustrated," Boothe said. "We hit some blocks in her training and things were not coming together the way she wanted them to. She took the summer off, and I feel she is going to come in fresh and new and will be a real force for our team.

Colleen is just a fantastic shooter. She is a well-rounded shooter. She has the technique down and she knows all the parts and pieces. If we have a gear ,question we turn to her. She is a senior in status, but a junior by eligibility. She is another really good motivator in practice.

Sophomore Keely Stankey also returns for the Rebels this season after a standout freshman year. Stankey, like Swanson, posted a top-10 finish at the U.S. Junior Olympics in April and led Ole Miss with a 569 smallbore average a year ago en route to team Rookie of the Year honors.

"Keely has a year under her belt, so I feel that she is going to come back as a seasoned competitor," Boothe said. "She spent all summer working camps with Colleen. I expect her to come in with a lot more knowledge and experience. I think she will be able to take that and turn it into a great season this year."

The Rebels added three newcomers to the squad for this season - freshman signee Emma Holman and walk-ons Amanda Green and Misty White. Holman, the sister of teammate Meredith, arrives at Ole Miss with a load of talent and energy.

"Emma is our energizer bunny," Boothe said. "I am expecting quite a bit out of her. She comes from a very competitive family with Meredith and has two younger sisters that all shoot. She has a lot of natural talent that we are looking to hone in and polish and turn her into a really nice shooter. I expect her to come in there and be one of the key players by the end of the season. She can push people. She has some areas in her technique that we can work on and some positions we can tweak that will make her a better shooter. She definitely has the talent.

"I am just expecting Amanda and Misty to survive this year, because neither one of them have ever shot competitively. They have shot rifles before, but nothing like what we are doing with them now. They are competing and doing everything we ask of them. With it being their first time to shoot competitively, I am impressed with how eager they are."

Boothe believes that the talent returning this season will help the Rebels become more consist, and the consistency will improve their scores.

"Our goal always is to make it to the NCAA Championships. I think we are going to be more consistent this year, because our players know the drill, they know what to do and they know what is expected of them. They know the road ahead and they know how hard it is going to be. I think last year's experience is going to help us build even more depth this year. I don't know if you see that in ourscores, because our air scores always tend to be a little bit higher. We are always striving to get our smallbore scores up, but because of the equipment and nature of smallbore those scores are always going to be a slight bit lower. I really think we are going to be a more consistent group. Last year we were kind of up and down and really didn't hit our wind until toward the end of the season. This year I think we are definitely looking to be more consistent, and hopefully that consistency will pay off."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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