U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit Makes Huge Impact on Florida Coaches
The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) has a storied history of producing the world’s greatest shooting-champion athletes. What is sometimes overlooked is their tremendous ability to train coaches and mentor youth shooting programs. The expertise and experience of the USAMU’s members was showcased at Mariner High School in Cape Coral, Fla., for the first ever Florida air rifle coaching clinic, where 26 coaches and over 20 high performing JROTC cadet athletes participated.
When Mariner High School coach Marybeth Williams approached the USAMU’s Sgt. 1st Class George Norton at the USAMU-hosted Youth Air Rifle 3-P Championship at Fort Benning, Ga., her initial goal was to connect a couple of her top athletes as perspective USAMU soldiers. However, after picking Norton’s brain for coaching advice, she had an epiphany!
“My husband and I have been working hard in our first four years of coaching to build a network of mentors. It occurred to me what an enormous opportunity it would be to have the talent of the (US)AMU help us with a ‘train the trainer’ type event,” Coach Williams explained.
She and her husband Maj. Bryan Williams (Mariner High School Army JROTC Senior Army instructor and marksmanship coach) quickly established a relationship with Norton and collaborated on a coaching clinic concept. Read more