Julie Goloski Golob wins three titles at Wyoming State Steel Challenge

Team Smith & Wesson Captain Julie Goloski Golob won three titles at the Wyoming State Steel Challenge match at the Great Divide Shooting Club in Rawlins, Wyoming, the weekend of July 17 and 18. She finished the match as Ladies Champion, Production Champion and Limited Champion.

She shot the entire match with her favorite competition handgun, the Smith & Wesson M&P Pro Series 9mm, Julie told The WOMA.

“The Great Divide Shooting Club (GDSC) has an impressive facility complete with all eight Steel Challenge stages,” Julie said. “This was the staff’s first time running a state-level Steel Challenge event, and they did an outstanding job. They’re some of the nicest folks you could hope to meet, and they’re dedicated to growing Steel Challenge in Wyoming,” she added.

Julie said that, schedule permitting, she’ll be back to compete at the Wyoming State Steel Challenge again in 2011. She added, “I hope to be able to experience GDSC’s wonderful hospitality next year, too.”

Julie is training hard for her next match of the 2010 season, the World Speed Shooting Championships in Piru, California, August 16 to August 22.

ATA Grand American Trapshooting Competition enters 5th year at WSRC

Here’s the latest on the Grand – also if there’s a way to pass on to any WOMA members attending – I’m only 6 miles away and would be happy to help out any fellow WOMA member that might be visiting our fair county. Thanks! ~ Gretchen Steele

SPARTA, ILL. – One of the premier events in shooting sports returns to Illinois on August 3-14 with the annual Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA) Grand American Trapshooting Championships at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex (WSRC) in Sparta.
The Grand American, which has been held at the 1,600-acre WSRC since 2006, annually attracts more than 7,000 shooters and 100,000 spectators and visitors to southwestern Illinois.
“We are delighted to once again welcome Grand American participants and spectators to the Land of Lincoln, and to the finest world-class shooting sports facility in the world,” said Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Marc Miller. “We value our partnership with the Amateur Trapshooting Association and the many industry sponsors and organizers of the Grand. Illinois and the WSRC are proud to be hosting this greatest of trapshooting events for the fifth time.”
The WSRC features 120 trap fields spanning a 3.5-mile shooting line; 1,000 campsites; ample parking; a full-service events center and vendor mall featuring 80 exhibitors; and, on-site food service from southern Illinois’ famed 17th Street Bar and Grill. In addition to the trap shooting facilities, the WSRC skeet, sporting clays, archery, and cowboy action shooting sports facilities host events and open shooting opportunities year round.
The Grand American is one of the nation’s oldest sporting events, begun in 1893. The first Grand American using clay targets was held in 1900.
For complete details on ATA Preliminary Week (Aug. 3-8) and Grand Week (Aug. 9-14) daily shooting events and competition, check the ATA Grand American program online at http://www.shootata.com/pdfs/2010GrandAmericanProgram_web.pdf
The WSRC hosts shooting sports events throughout the year. This summer, the complex has hosted the U.S. Open Trap Championships (June 10-13), the Midwest Skeet Classic (June 24-27), the Scholastic Clay Target Program state skeet and sporting clays shoots (June 26), the annual Scholastic Clay Target Program/Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation Nationals (July 21-24), and is hosting the Junior World Skeet Championship (July 29-Aug. 1). A variety of other local, regional, state, and national shoots are planned for this fall. For more information on the schedule and on the World Shooting and Recreational Complex, check the IDNR web site at http://www.dnr.state.il.us/worldshooting/

First Annual American Celebrity Classic Shoot

The American Celebrity Classic, a new national shooting event to honor and help our troops, is set for June 3 and 4, 2011, at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, Texas.

The American Celebrity Classic will bring together sportsmen and women, outdoor-related industries, outfitters, professional athletes and celebrities who promote shooting sports, specifically those committed to helping our active-duty military personnel as well as our veterans.

“This nationally televised shooting event will be one of the most exciting, fun and well-organized shooting events in the country, with the ultimate goal being to help our military personnel,” said American Celebrity Classic Executive Director Jeff Engel.

The proceeds of the American Celebrity Classic will be shared by many organizations, which may include but are not limited to: Salute to American Heroes, Operation Welcome Home, Stars & Stripes, the Blinded Veterans Association and the USO. The goal of the American Celebrity Classic is to provide funding to organizations offering support for our military personnel while preserving recreational shooting and hunting traditions.

Teams of four shooters will pair with a celebrity for two days of shooting and socializing in a fun-filled weekend.  Sponsorship packages have been mailed to more than 250 companies across the U.S.

The American Celebrity Classic is a Sportsmen Honoring Our Troops (S.H.O.T.) event. To learn more, please contact Cathy Williams at CMG Marketing & Events: (703) 587-7142 or cathy@cmgmarketingandevents.com.

Training for Olympics like being a ‘lab rat’ at times

Tracy and I wanted to update you on our training so far. We’ve put in a huge block of training this summer. Most of our training is done from April to November to get us in optimal shape for racing from November until March. It takes a lot of training and a huge base of conditioning to be able to ski with the best in the world for over a five-month period in the winter.

In the spring we usually start building our base, which means we do a lot of volume training — long hours at a slow enough pace to last for several hours of skiing, running, rollerskiing, or biking and completing a workout like that at least twice a day. In the summer, we slowly start incorporating some more intensity workouts — along with strength — all while maintaining the base training at high hours. Read more

Tracy Barnes — Member of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association

Born in the small town of Durango in the Colorado Rockies, Tracy Barnes and her twin sister, Lanny, grew up loving the outdoors. Their dad took the twins hunting and fishing, and their mom took them hiking in the mountains. They learned to shoot at a very young age. Lanny and Tracy signed up for cross-country skiing when they were in middle school, and made their first World Jr. Championship Biathlon Team at age 18. They medaled in that event the following year, and have been competing on the World Cup Circuit for seven years now. Though Lanny is actually five minutes older, she has always looked up to Tracy as her “big sister” and says that Tracy is her toughest competitor. Tracy has a do-or-die, never-give-up mindset that inspires not only her sister, but others as well. Lanny says that telling Tracy she can’t do something only encourages her to try harder. Tracy and Lanny host smallbore shooting clinics for women and children around the country.

See http://twinbiathletes.com/default.aspx

Am I obsessed?

You can stop compulsively channel surfing; on the heels of “The Biggest Loser” and “Hoarders” hails the latest in intervention reality shows, “Obsessed”—this one splashing on screen the sorrows of sufferers from OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

After my husband and I witnessed a commercial for the June 28^th debut, he appeared unusually pensive.

“I may have a touch of that,” he hesitatingly confessed. “I count when I walk.  But I don’t have to,” he added as an important distinction. I know of what I speak, being the mother of two daughters who for over five years have relied on prescription medication post therapy to keep them from ruminating in never-ending circular thought patterns.  If you choose to count while you walk it’s a routine; if you cannot not count, it’s ritual and if that ritual interferes with your life until you are frozen in its fingers, it’s OCD.

“I couldn’t go to bed without locking and unlocking the front door over and over again, despite the fact that I could look at it and see it’s locked,” Kate explained to her stepfather who came into our lives late in the game.  By the time he said “I do” to me, she’d already come undone, home during a college vacation with hands so raw from over washing they looked like the result of third degree burns.

“I don’t know how to stop!” she called out to me in the driveway, tears streaming down her face as her remote control car door locker beeped seven times in her grip.

Even with a daily dose of Zoloft, hers and her sister’s battle is continual—a conscious act of will to fight the urge to act out the rituals that can ruin their peace of mind.  Kate inhales books on the subject every time she attempts to lessen the prescription dosage in an effort to wean from medication.

After all the pain I’d watched my babies pass through finally to be able to manage the situation, the last thing I wanted to do was witness others in the infancy of the disease, in the agony of a despair I know only too well.  I failed to find humor in the movie “As Good As it Gets;” observing Jack Nicholson avoid cracks in the sidewalk made me feel faint.

“I don’t think I can watch it,” I admitted to Brad about the heralded premiere of “Obsessed.”

But when I opened my e-mail to notify Kate about the upcoming reality show, I discovered a note from her.

“Whoa!  There’s a new show about OCD!  If it’s not too hard to watch and they give advice, maybe I can learn something!”

One’s man’s poison is another man’s prescription.  Must be because I am the mother.

Today she called my cell phone to tell me it had already started—and there were three episodes on tap throughout the day.  A schedule that’s a wee bit obsessive?  The first one had been somewhat mild; she had found it informative.  How could I tell her I’d be watching the college world series instead?  Her second call was more disturbing.

“And one episode on later tonight is about someone’s obsession with working out…..wouldn’t be us, would it????”  Just a few days ago we admitted to each other that we can’t seem to get through a day without cardio, sculpting circle pilates, and a power walk.

Perhaps I’d better tune in during breaks between innings—if I’m not busy doing sit ups, that is.

Protect your DSLR/Video gear with KATA elements covers

If you have to be filming/shooting in extreme outdoor conditions I suggest Kata elements covers. Rain, snow, dust is never good for electronics so protect them with these great products from Kata. They are available in a variety of sizes to accommodate all size video cameras as well as DSLRs with different size lenses. They range in price from $44.99-$149.99. If you have any questions or interest on Kata elements covers please contact Kathryn Nazzaro,  WOMA member:  knazzaro@wbhunt.com    or  1-800-221-1830 and ask for Kathryn. Thanks for your support.

Oklahoma hog hunt for women hosted by WOMA member

An Invitation to all Women Hunters!

Come hunt hogs with the Vice President of Outdoor Connection, Tracey Splechter.  She will be heading to southern Oklahoma Sept 10-12, 2010.  The ranch she will be hunting is located near Mill Creek where she will spend two days sharing the outdoors with a group of lucky ladies.

This hunt includes two days of hunting from blinds in front of baited holes, two nights stay in a newly remodeled, ranch cabin, all meals and allows two hogs to be taken by each hunter.  Also bring your favorite fishing rod and a pair of waders and fish for smallmouth bass on three miles of Pennington Creek at no extra charge.  The price is $600 per person and at this time there are three spots open.

Contact Tracey Splechter for more information on this hunt.

620-364-5500
tracey@outdoor-connection.com
www.outdoor-connection.com

What do you need to get across your high ropes course?

The teenager looked at it me through tears streaming down her face. Her helmet sat cockeyed on her head and she looked pink from a day on the river earlier. It was Day #4 of her wilderness adventure experience. She had climbed a 40-foot tower and now shook and cried while hanging on to a set of ropes that she needed in order to get over to the other side of the high ropes course at this wilderness adventure setting in the Ozarks of Missouri.

“Barb, I can’t do this. I can’t do it,” she sobbed.

Meanwhile, I found myself – someone who is afraid of heights, mind you – standing on a cable 40 feet above ground, about 10 feet away from her. I inched my way back to the platform. She kept falling apart. The only answer it appeared, and the guides waited to see if this needed to be done, was to get the rescue rope and team and take her down from the course if she decided not to do it.

I tried all the pep talks I knew in the world. You know: “Sure you can do it. You made it up to the stand, right?” And, “Aw come on, it’s fun out here!”

She wasn’t buying it.

Finally, the mom-of-four, the long-distance athlete in me from high school track and the wife of a former military guy who was never home and left me with teenage boys to raise said, “OK. Now, look at me, look at me. I want you to reach down in that pit inside you and pull up whatever it was that got you up here in the first place. Use that to step down here to me and I’ll help you across.”

Two hours later, and after a long rest on the middle platform taking deep breaths (her, not me – by this time I was spotting the water tower in the nearby town and thinking about what it would be like to be a turkey vulture), we zip lined down to the ground. She was smiling, and my biggest reward came when she looked at me, all dry-eyed on the ground, and said, “Thanks, Barb.”

That makes me think that this Women’s Outdoor Media Association is like a big high ropes course. There are lots of ways to achieve your goals and some of us have different methods than others, but all of us working together can help each other get through it and maybe even fly down the zip line of life to experience the joy of success. For too long, it’s been too intimidating for many women in the outdoor media – and not only because of some men who think that women should not be allowed in the good ole boys’ club, but also because some women out there clawed their way to the top or were born into the business, and are not inclined to help others.

Take a look at the links section here. If you’re not in there, why not? Do you have a website or blog yet?

Find other members and reach out to them. You’ll be surprised at the caliber of men and women in our ranks with the mission to focus on what’s being done for and about women in the outdoors.

Also, remember, within our ranks are some prestigious athletes who would skip across the ropes course of life, and they are accessible to you as members of The Women’s Outdoor Media Association. Fly fishing guides, Olympic athletes, professional shooters, a videographer, photographers, writers, editors and the list goes on and there’s a reason they’re here: they understand the mission.

If you’re standing on the platform up high and need someone to help you across the course, let us know. That’s why we started this association and we’re not to the zip line yet.

Women outpace men in hunting numbers

More women than men took up hunting last year, according to new net figures from the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA).

While the total number of hunters in the United States decreased slightly (.05 percent) between 2008 and 2009, the number of female hunters increased by 5.4 percent, netting 163,000 new participants. Growth areas for women included muzzleloading (up 134.6 percent), bowhunting (up 30.7 percent), and hunting with firearms (up 3.5 percent).

Data also shows that women outpaced men among net newcomers to target shooting with a rifle, where female participation grew by 4.1 percent.

Participation statistics are from the NSGA report, “Sports Participation in 2009-Shooting Sports.”

Unsurprised at the number of female hunters and shooters are the women Olympians of the USA Shooting Team, whose ever-increasing visibility has made them effective ambassadors, role models and recruiters of women to traditional outdoor sports.

“Shooting is one of the most fun and empowering things you can teach a young girl or a grown woman,” said Corey Cogdell, 23, a lifelong hunter and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in trap shooting. “Most men are surprised to find out that I am an avid outdoors woman and are often intrigued to learn how they can get females in their own lives involved in hunting and shooting.”

Connie Smotek, 45, a two-time Olympic skeet shooter, bronze medalist in the 2009 World Cup, and an avid bird and big-game hunter, added, “Shooting and hunting are activities which a woman can enjoy for a lifetime.”

Cogdell and Smotek are among the many USA Shooting Team members who parlayed early interests in hunting into international success in shooting sports—an opportunity that didn’t exist for women until relatively recently. Women’s shooting wasn’t officially added as an Olympic sport until 1984 (although U.S. rifle shooter Margaret Murdock won a medal competing against men in the 1976 games). Since then, U.S. women have won 10 Olympic medals in shooting.

Four of those 10 medals were won in the past four Olympics by Kim Rhode, a double-trap and skeet shooter now among the most elite and enduring athletes in all of sports. Rhode has embraced her Olympic success as a platform to encourage new shooters, including many young women. She has appeared at NRA’s International Youth Hunter Education Challenge, where she has signed autographs, posed for pictures, and given the young participants the thrill of holding her Olympic medals.

NRA programs have played a key role in making it easier for women to break into hunting and shooting. Since its start in the year 2000, NRA’s Women On Target program has introduced almost 52,000 women to the shooting sports through women-only instructional shooting clinics. The number of clinics has increased substantially over that time, from 13 clinics reaching 496 women in 2000 to 290 clinics reaching 9,014 women in 2009. NRA has already scheduled 295 instructional clinics for 2010.

In addition, NRA’s Women’s Programs offers a slate of women’s hunting excursions each year that allow women of all skill levels to hunt and enjoy the outdoors in the company of other women. Ten women’s hunts are on the books for 2010 and early 2011, including hunts for black bears in Alaska, ducks in Michigan, pheasants in Nebraska, and deer in Texas.

Spots still remain for several of NRA’s 2010 women’s hunts. To view the full schedule and sign-up for a hunt, visit www.nrahq.org/women/hunting/index.asp or contact Ann Marie Foster, NRA Women’s Hunting Programs coordinator, at 703-267-1413 or womenontargethunts@nrahq.org.

To find a Women On Target Instructional Shooting Clinic near you, visit www.nrahq.org/women/isc/clinics.asp.

*Pictured is WOMA member Marti Davis, active on many pro staffs and an avid hunter from southwest Missouri.

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