NCAA Rifl e National Championships
By Michael Liuzza National Development Team
A Shooter’s Perspective: My Trip to Cover the NCAA Championship
USA Shooting sent University of Alaska Fairbanks alum (and National Development Team member) Michael Liuzza to cover this year’s NCAA Rifl e National Championships at his alma mater. Below is his account of the event.
I was fortunate enough to
make my way back up to my alma mater, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, to cover the NCAA Rifl e Champion- ships. I have wanted to visit since I had graduated the
year, the temperature didn’t bother me. Wednesday the 11th, I made my way over to the apartment I stayed at on campus to say “hi” to my old roommates and teammates, Mats Eriksson and (National
to see what UAF had put into the event, and I was not dis- appointed. It was a venue fi t to run the largest collegiate rifl e match in the United States. The rest of the day, it was a team effort to put
ally covering the event. The work was hard, but reward- ing. It seemed like there was never any break. If you weren’t updating social me- dia, you were looking for the next photo op. If you weren’t doing either of those, chanc- es are you were walking to
See more of Michael Liuzza’s pho- tos on USA Shooting’s Flickr page: www.fl
ickr.com/usashooting in the “NCAA Rifl e Championships 2015” album. Air Rifl e Champion Rachel Martin is pictured here with the UAF mascot.
May prior, and USA Shooting needed someone to cover the events. I fi gured that was the best way to kill two birds with one stone: Visit- ing UAF, and giving back in some form or another to the sport that helped me get to where I am. When I arrived the night
of March 10th, I was wel- comed with a -15 degree breeze as I exited the air- port. Still loving the novelty of not being here in almost a
Team member) Ryan Ander- son. When I walked in, it was as if nothing had changed. Some of the other guys on the team came up and we all had breakfast and relived a few of the more entertain- ing moments we had shared in that apartment. It was great. I then made my way down to the Patty Center to take a look at the venue that I would be covering the championships at for the next few days. I was excited
26 USA Shooting News | May 2015
the fi nishing touches on the range and getting everything ready for offi cial training the next day. When I offered to cover
the event, I was thinking “Hey, this will be fun. I’ll have fun in Alaska, take some pic- tures, write up some articles, then be done.” It’s safe to say I was wrong. I remember sending a message to one of my friends saying “I have a new-found respect for media people,” when I started actu-
shooters, coaches and spec- tators to get their point of view in order to make your work (A) better and (B) easi- er. It seemed the work never stopped, but I was enjoying it the entire time. It was nice to be a shoot-
er going into the coverage of the event. I felt I had a one up on most of the other re- porters and photographers there. Most reporters are new to shooting, and un- fortunately, sometimes end up writing about things that shooters fi nd dull and the public doesn’t under- stand. Also, the video feed without the target feed or updates just doesn’t do it
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