Hays High School’s Trey Koger sights in a target in preparation for the upcoming Marine Corps JROTC Service Marksmanship competition he’ll attend in Albuquerque, New Mexico later this month. Trey is a member of the Hays High School Marine Corps JROTC unit commanded by Major David Hamil. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
STAFF REPORT
Hays senior and Marine Corps JROTC Cadet Norman (Trey) Koger will participate in the Marine Corps JROTC Service Marksmanship Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., Feb 17-21.
Koger qualified for the event through the MCJROTC National Postal Match in December. A postal match has teams of four competitors shoot their targets at their home school and mail them in for scoring. Individual scores are combined for team scores. Awards are given to highest scoring teams as well as to individuals for prone, kneeling and standing positions, as well as for overall scores (total of all three).
The competitors fire pellet air rifles at Olympic-style bulls-eye targets from a distance of 10 meters, or 33 feet. Ten bulls-eyes are used for scoring with a possible 100 points in each position.
The top 10 teams from across the entire country, along with the 12 highest scoring individuals who are not on one of those teams, are invited to participate in the multi-day event.
Trey scored 256 out of the max possible 300 points during the postal match to earn his invitation to compete as an individual.
“I’m very pleased that he will have the opportunity to attend this competition”, said Maj. David Hamil, the senior Marine instructor at Hays High, “but he’ll have to bring his A-game, because he will be competing against marksmen, both boys and girls, who fire scores in the 270s or even a little higher.”
“This event is slightly different than the qualifying match,” Hamil added. “The competitors will fire a double string of targets – two targets in each of the positions vice just one. That makes it a little more challenging.”
Hamil will accompany Koger as his sponsor and coach for the event. Koger is in his fourth year of the MCJROTC program at Hays and is the first Cadet to participate in this national level event.
