VSSA Junior Marksman Jessica Kelley Wins First Place JROTC Service Championship at Camp Perry, Ohio.

On Feb. 20, 2016 Jessica Kelley a Jr. High Power shooter with VSSA, won 1st place for her Precision Air Rifle JROTC Air Force team out of Stafford, Va. The CMP JROTC Service Match is a 3x20 consisting of two days of shooting at Camp Perry, OH (North East Region). She began by scoring a perfect 200-17X in prone and nearly did it again on the second day with a 199- 15 X. She went on to win first place for the Air Force JROTC after completing in the ten shot final round against five Franklin County, VA finalists with an overall score of 1251.4. She will now move on and compete in the CMP JROTC National Matches held at Anniston, AL. There she will compete against 85 other precision shooters representing the best marksman from every JROTC Branch including the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. The competition will occur on Mar. 18 &19, 2016.

Jessica began marksmanship training in 2012 during her freshman year of high school after joining the Jr. Shooters team at American Legion Post 290 in Stafford, Va. She began using a sporter air rifle and was coached by Capt. Nick Roberge (USMC Ret) and Don Cavender of the FBI. She enjoyed marksmanship and soon began expanding her skillset by including High Power after joining the VJMP (Virginia Jr. Marksmanship Program) team sponsored by VSSA and coached by Maj. Mike Darnell (USMC Ret) and Bill Mckaig (Army Ret). She then further expanded her marksmanship capabilities by joining the Mavericks, a precision shooting team, coached by Tom Pike at the IWLA Arlington/Fairfax Chapter (a VSSA affiliated club). This strong foundation of marksmanship and great coaching helped Jessica greatly improve her skills as evidenced by her being invited by USA Shooting to attend the National Jr. Olympics at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs this spring.

Jessica is a senior at North Stafford High School. She has applied to the United States Coast Guard Academy and hopes to shoot on their rifle team with Coach Richard Hawkins .