East Juniata wants to prove itself on varsity level

BY GREG WILLIAMS

Sentinel reporter

gwilliams@lewistownsentinel.com

COCOLAMUS – The East Juniata Tigers only get one shot at making a good first impression. Head coach Danny Reed is optimistic about the Tigers’ success in their inaugural campaign of air rifle.

“This is our first season competing on a PIAA level and I believe we will surprise some of the larger schools we are scheduled to compete against in terms of our performance,” Reed said.

East Juniata fielded a club level team since forming in the spring 2019. The newest Tigers’ team faced a few issues regarding its equipment, relying on donations and hand-medowns from other local air rifle teams to get off the ground. They also were awarded a $14,600 grant from the National Rifle Association.

The Tigers won both of their competitions a year. The program was created as an alternative to more traditional sports to involve as many athletes as possible and have a positive experience at East Juniata and Juniata high schools.

This is only the third full year of the program; it also existed in 2019-20 then again in 2021-22. The sport had been suspended for two years.

East Juniata will compete as an independent, playing a lot of Lebanon-Lancaster League schools. School officials hope to join a league in the future.

Reed, who is entering his second season with the new program, is thrilled with the 20 athletes who came out this winter. Air rifle is a co-operative ven- ture between both Juniata County high schools. It also means the Tigers will compete at the District 4 4-A level this season.

“The students are spread fairly equally between the two schools,” Reed said.

“We have a relatively small core, who were part of the team in the past – seven to be precise.

“Two of those returning are seniors – four seniors overall on the team,” he added. “That means we have a decent number of new shooters, which I am extremely optimistic about seeing how they have performed so far in practice.”

For the boys team, the four seniors are Andrew Smith, Ashton Imes, Simon Gloss and Thomas Howard.

Cole Brubaker, Gunner Woleslagle, Kolten Martin, Trent Robinson and Trenton Seitz are five juniors on the roster.

“Being our first year in competition with other school teams, I don’t have a lot of experience on what we will be walking into, but I am confident we have a good group of shooters who can represent our school district well,” Reed said. “My goal is – being our first competing season – to see our students stay safe, shoot well and gain confidence in their abilities and have fun.”

Banks Hoffman and David Boaz are the sophomores who came out this winter. Rounding out the roster are freshmen Blaine Imes, Camden Bargo, Daylyn Kennedy, Elly Brown, Joshua Martin and Remington Shirk.

“I work in youth ministry with CPYM (Central Pennsylvania Youth Ministries) and this is an opportunity to meet new students and build relationships with them as well as to see them develop and sharpen their skills,” Reed said. “But I also want them to enjoy this. My belief is if you aren’t having fun and enjoying what you are doing while competing in a sport, then you need to ask why you are investing time doing it.”

On the girls side, the Tigers have three athletes: junior Cameron Yocum, sophomore Kate Nace and freshman Emily Goodling.

“This is a great group of young men and women, and I love seeing the friend- ly competition among them as they practice and its great watching them improve from week to week in their accuracy.” Reed said.

East Juniata Tigers

District 4 4-A

First year as varsity sport and will play as independent; last year was club team.

Head Coach, Danny Reed, 1st year; assistant coaches Bob Schifano and Felicia Porch.