Eight Assistant Coaches Added to USA Shooting’s Re-Structured Shotgun Program

USA Shooting’s National Shotgun Coach Todd Graves (Hamilton, Ga.) has assigned eight highly-respected coaches to assist and participate in the formation of USA Shooting’s re-structured Shotgun program.

With more than 37 years of shooting and coaching experience, the four-time Olympian Graves is working to build upon the program’s success in recent years. Graves and his eight assistant coaches will help implement a variety of shooting camps for elite-level and developmental shooters in the coming months as USA Shooting tries to place shooters with coaches throughout the country that can provide influence, expertise and variety for all different levels of shooters within the National Team program.

“The depth of our program continues to be demonstrated at the Olympics, World Championships and World Cups and is truly a testament to the dedication of the shooters we have and to the coaches and programs that nurture them,” said Graves recently. “My intent is to work with the coaches and shooters to strengthen our approach and to ensure that we’re developing opportunities, techniques and programs that allow us to continue to be the world’s elite shotgun team.”

The pedigree of coaches assigned to help assist Graves gives the program depth and a surplus of knowledge and insight spread throughout the country to reach elite and developing-elite shooters of all ages.

National Team Coaches include:

• Jay Waldron — a 1992 Olympic teammate of Graves, who coaches out of the Hillsboro Trap & Skeet Club in Eugene, Ore.
• Tommy Lynn Browning — A former national sporting-clay champion who coaches his daughter Kayle, a National Team athlete and runner-up in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Trap, in Wooster, Ark.
• Craig Hancock — One of the top skeet coaches in the world, Hancock has worked with several members of the USA National Team including his son, two-time Olympic gold medalist Vincent, along with top contenders Jon Michael McGrath and Morgan Craft. He and Vincent are looking to build and grow the Hancock Shooting Academy in the coming years.
• Dwayne Weger — a former double trap National Team member, Weger instructs shooters from the Willawalla Creek Shooting Center in Muenster, Texas. He has also been the Team Leader for the U.S. Olympic Team for Shooting during the two previous Olympic Games.

Assisting Graves with the development of the National Junior Team will be Mike Simpson (Hartsfield, Ga.). Simpson coaches out of the South Georgia Youth Shooting and Bridge Creek Clays, a USA Shooting Certified Training Center. Simpson has two shooting prodigies on the Junior Olympic Shotgun team in William Hinton (Dacula, Ga.) and Christopher Webster (Bainbridge, Ga.). In addition, USA Shooting welcomes back long-time shotgun coach Lloyd Woodhouse (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Woodhouse previously retired from USA Shooting in 2008 after more than 20 years as the National Shotgun Coach, which included leading six U.S. Olympic Teams and establishing the world’s most dominant shotgun program. Also, Les Greevy (Williamsport, Pa.) will be a part of the contingent being asked to help develop young shooters. Greevy operates the Youth Development Shotgun Training Coalition, Inc., a Certified Training Center of USA Shooting. Since 2002, Greevy’s young shooters have won many medals in national and international competition, including a Junior World Championship, CAT Games Championship, National Championship and several Junior National Championships with many placements on the USA Shooting National Team, National Development Team and National Junior Olympic Team.

USA Shooting has also assigned Michael Herman (Peyton, Colo.) to help support the U.S. Olympic Training Center resident program in Colorado Springs. Herman, a former National Team shooter, participated in the 2007 Pan American Games and won a World Cup bronze medal in 2006. In 1992, he founded Shoot the Moon, which originally designed shooting clothing just for women. In 1997, an additional line of clothing for men was designed. He currently outfits the USA Shooting Team with National and Olympic Team vests for competition.

As the program expands, Graves has said that more coaches may be named later but these well-known and capable coaches will lead USA Shooting in this new, holistic approach.

Assisting Graves with overall program management and helping oversee the resident program in Colorado Springs is 1984 Olympic bronze medalist in Rifle, Wanda Jewell. Jewell was previously the Operations Manager for the organization.