Looking to feel relieved, have some fun, or learn a thing or two? Then head out to the range to meet up with Simpson’s Shooting team and help establish one of the newest programs on campus.

Other than rugby, Shooting Club is one of Simpson’s newest and most intriguing sports around the campus.

The program is now in its second year and is looking to be moving in the right direction thanks to several devoted and enthusiastic students that decided that this would be, not only fun, but beneficial to the campus.

Junior John Greaves, the founder of Simpson Shooting Club, is very pleased with how the program has developed this soon and hopes that it will continue to grow.

Greaves, like many Simpson students has a passion for hunting and shooting so thought why not bring an event like this to Simpson.

Junior Joey Reed, one of the leaders of the shooting club, joined because he too loves to take a step back every now and then and just go shoot.

“I just enjoy getting out there and shooting trap. For me it is fun, a nice release, and also is a challenge at times,” Reed said.

The club consists of several components. One of the components is just giving people who have never shot before and want to learn, a chance to go out and do so.

Greaves and Reed both help out teaching the beginners, but often times are accompanied by professionals who take time out of their day to go help out as well. People that have had experience before shooting are also always welcome to head out to shoot with the club if they ever have some free time or are just interested.

The program got started last fall thanks to several grants that were given to the club from the National Shooting Sports Foundations. Greaves is very thankful for this because without their help the program would not be what it is now.

“Those grants really helped us getting started so we could buy some of the things that we needed like our safe that is in the Student Center,” Greaves said.

The third component of this club is that there is also a competitive side to it. Whoever is available and wants to shoot that has enough experience will travel to some of the shoots at other campuses to compete.

Last year being the start of the program, the club attended several competitions at UNI as well as Iowa State. This fall they got the opportunity to go travel around the country, such as the University of Kentucky Invitational, where they got a lot out of the experience.

“We competed pretty well and got some good advice from other clubs that were there that have been going longer,” Greaves said.

The program is still new so adjustments are still being made.

The season will get under way in the next several weeks where the club will be introducing a new program to their repertoire called the Scholastic Pistol Program, which essentially are speed competitions with pistols.

The season looks to be a fun and exciting one. The club will be taking several shooters to start competing at Lindenwood University in the next few weeks to open the season and looking further down the road, Greaves hopes that they will be able to send some shooters to the National Championships in San Antonio towards the end of March, to earn some money towards the program here.

Overall Greaves is happy where things stand for the shooting club and has high hopes this year.

“I am really excited because we have a lot of chances to go out and compete this spring,” Greaves said.

With the program on the rise, the Shooting Club hopes to continue to get recognition and become an important part of Simpson College in the years to come, as well as start to make a name for themselves around the country with each competition that they attend.