My Story + Where I am Now

Hey everyone,

I've wanted to do something like this for a while. Having a blog about the life of a student athlete, about going to different competitions, etc. I thought it would be a fitting first post to be about how I got into the sport and a "as brief as it possibly can be" story going from then to now. Sort of like a catch up type thing.

First, I want to quickly introduce myself. I'm Gabby Morrow, I have been shooting for about five years. I am currently in college and signed to the Georgia Southern Women's Rifle Team which is an NCAA Division I program. I am in my Sophomore year of school

So, about how everything all started. When my older brother was in high school, he was a part of his high schools rifle team. It was a team that was in the schools NJROTC program but was also a GHSA program, meaning it was considered a varsity sport at the school, same as volleyball or soccer. I tagged along on almost all of the teams trips and remembered their head coach telling me that at the end of my 8th grade year, I should come in and work with the team so that I could go with the team to a summer camp and be able to learn as much as I could before the start of my freshman year of high school.

I started off as a sporter. If you have no idea what that means, think of it as the junior varsity side of rifle. Precision is like the varsity side. Throughout my freshman year I had a ton of fun but somewhere towards the end we were told that our coach would be leaving. While we waited for a new coach, this being at the beginning of sophomore year. I was also moved up to the Precision team. Another one of the JROTC instructors filled in while we waited on another to be hired. Eventually one was hired and things didn't seem like they were going to go so great. Me and someone else on the team were in the running to be team captain and nothing was ever made official. It sort of felt like we we're always paranoid about the situation. As the year passed I slowly found myself falling out of love with the sport and I debated about not returning for my senior season. After expressing to my parents about how I felt they encouraged me to join a local club range as a "give it one last chance" sort of thing.

I went into the range a couple of times to train but didn't really talk to anyone there. The Coach of the range signed me up to attend a match with them. I hadn't really met anyone on the team so i sort of kept to myself but the team was so welcoming and kind. While they shot higher than I did, they treated me like equal competition. It truly helped me excel over time.

A few months later, the club team traveled to Nationals and it was a true bonding experience for the entire team. Over those few months I definitely found a joy within the sport again, and I found amazing friends that I still keep in touch with despite all of us going off to different colleges.

My senior year started and I had much success throughout the season. I managed to qualify for Navy Nationals (the championships for Navy JROTC programs), I did well at the two day competition and ended up placing 4th overall, giving me a ticket to the All Service Championships (This was the biggest match for all JROTC programs). That match wrapped up my JROTC rifle career, then started the GHSA season. The score to qualify for the State Championships was a 292/300. Prior to my senior season, I don't even recall ever shooting at 280. The first match of the season I shot a 291, one point away from qualifying for state. I laughed at it but at the same time I was proud because that was a personal best. The day eventually came where I shot the 292 and qualified for State. The team continued to have a successful season, we went to the playoffs and won both matches, that qualified the whole team for State.

As my senior year of high school was soon coming to a close, I realized that I truly wanted to compete in college. I knew I was late to the game but I also knew that signed to a team wasn't impossible and that if I truly worked hard I would be able to do it. I emailed a bunch of teams but got many responses telling me that their rosters were already full. It was fairly late in the year but I didn't give up. I ended up going on two visits to schools, one of

those being Georgia Southern. The visit went well and it was actually the morning before the training day at State Championships that the Head Coach called me and offered me a spot of the team. A few days later I signed my NLI (National Letter of Intent) and I was officially on a college team.

That brings me to the beginning of my freshman year of college. It was a good start, but still scary because it was all new. As the weeks passed I adjusted to the college life but quickly became exhausted. I had been training hard all summer so I was completely drained before we even had our first match of the season. I still had a pretty good year despite the many curveballs thrown my way, despite all of them, I got through them every time and it taught me a lot. I made the honor roll both semesters and also learned so much about college classes and how to succeed in them.

Sophomore year was here before I knew it. Seemed like one second I was enjoying my summer and next thing you knew I was moving into my apartment before school started. COVID 19 had a major impact on the summer and school year. I had a great opportunity of working with other collegiate athletes to host a week long camp. It was an incredible experience where I absorbed a lot of knowledge. Going into the school year, there was still a question of if we were actually going to even have a season to begin with. Luckily we did have a season but could not have spectators. We broke many personal and team records this season and had a great conference championship.

Georgia Southern won the smallbore title for the first time in program history. The team was only a few points away from winning the conference title. However, looking at last year compared to this year, we made major improvements. The entire team is extremely excited for next season.

So now we're all caught up. I am wrapping up my second year in college. It has been an amazing experience and I can't wait to see what the future years bring.