In preparation for the 2014-2015 season, Southern Lehigh High School’s rifle team has started its practices at the Hellertown Sportsmen Club.

Just like any high school sport, anyone can join the team; however, there are tryouts due to the large number of interested students. During tryouts, Coach Robert Gaugler, a high school technology education teacher, teaches the style of shooting the team uses.

The Colonial League teams use the Olympic style, in which the shooter is wearing shooting equipment and must lay on a mat 50 feet away from the target with open sights. That means there is no magnification when looking at the target.

“It is like trying to look a period at the end of a sentence from 50 feet away,” Coach Gaugler said.

The rifle team competed in their first match on Thursday, December 11th against East Stroudsburg North. In the past, this team has been a hit or miss for the Spartans, but Southern Lehigh pulled through with a win, 463-424.

There are ten teams in the Colonial Rifle League. Each team competes against every school in the league one time.

During a match, the goal of the shooter is to hit the target. Each target has ten bullseyes which are scored. Ten people from each team shoot, and the top five best scores are the ones that are used to calculate the final score for each team. The team with the highest score wins the match.

Last season the Spartans finished third in league finals in a tiebreaker match against Berwick and Emmaus.

“This year we are looking forward to beating both Emmaus and Berwick,” senior Nick Cavacini said. “We also hope to win the league championship.”