Hillsdale College has announced that the 2023 USA Shooting Junior Olympic Development Camp will be held again this year at the John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Education Center June 19-24.
The camp aims to improve advanced young athletes’ shooting abilities over the course of six days, as well as provide them a glimpse of a liberal arts education. Campers are taught by Olympians and World Cup champions from across the globe alongside Hillsdale College shotgun coaches. The cost of attendance is $2,000, which includes transportation, housing, meals, and ammunition.
“These athletes are the future of the shooting sports,” said Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé. “We are honored to host them and the Olympic greats who will be coaching them.”
The event will be run for the third year by Assistant Program Development and Competition Manager Caitlin Connor-Royer. A former resident of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, she became a full-time employee of the college after coaching the 2019 training camps.
“In past years we’ve had two separate camps, with 25 to 30 athletes per camp staying in the dorms,” Connor-Royer said. “This time, we’re combining the two together. We’re hoping for 50.”
Assistant Professor of History Jason Gehrke taught the camp’s Constitution crash course last summer.
“I gave two group lectures on the historical context of the right to keep and bear arms,” Gehrke said. “I found the students to be engaging. I challenged their assumptions and hoped to present the idea of ordered liberty.”
Gehrke used the English Bill of Rights to contextualize the Founder’s beliefs in the Second Amendment. For many athletes, it was their first time in a primary-source based class, Gehrke said.
“There were students that were surprised I presented counter- and pro-arguments in the same presentation,” Gehrke said. “I sought to leave them with what intellectual freedom looks like.”
As summer quickly approaches, registration is now open for the June camp.
“Feedback from athletes, coaches and other guests continue to be very positive and everyone seems excited to have the opportunity to utilize Hillsdale’s state of the art facility,” said Barbie Keiser, guest and event services manager of the Halter Center.
