Terry Coleman has been named the new head coach of the Iowa Central men's and women's sport shooting teams.
Coleman, who has several years of experience in the sport, spent the past 12 years working as the assistant rodeo coach for the Tritons.
"There has been a great foundation set for the Iowa Central Sports Shooting team and I want to continue to build upon that helping students not only reach their shooting goals but more importantly help them achieve academic success," Coleman said. "College athletics are a great tool to help students earn a degree and move on to be successful in their professional careers."
Along with his time coaching the rodeo team, Coleman also taught at the elementary level for two years. He started working at a gun club as a 12-year-old and has been involved in the sport ever since.
Unlike many sports where you can focus on following prospective students at the high school level, sport shooting requires coaches to do a little more searching.
"There are many similarities as well as differences that separate sports shooting from other sports. The recruiting world is a little different in the aspect that not every high school has a team or club," he said. "In many ways, this is just like rodeo where maybe a select few kids from a school participate in a club. However, it is one of the fastest-growing sports in America. Just like any other sport you are only as good as the amount of work and time you are willing to put into it. The mental aspect of sports shooting is very important so that is where a lot of the coaching comes into play."
Coleman's goals now include continuing to build upon the success of the team, which has benefited greatly from the support of the Iowa Central staff.
"The Tritons have been successful in the past for several reasons. First of all we have tremendous support at the college from our administration. We have great leadership here and that is the foundation for any successful program," Coleman said. "They have developed a great facility that is close to campus which helps tremendously with recruiting. Secondly, the coaches that have been here in the past have done a good job finding great shooters and recruiting them to Iowa Central. I also believe the success is directly correlated to the caliber of athletes that the state of Iowa is producing in the sports shooting world. They have developed one of the best youth programs in the country and it is only getting better!
"I am excited to start this new chapter of my career. My goal is to continue to carry on the excellent tradition that has been established here at Iowa Central while continuing to progress the program. Coaching is all about relationships and I look forward to building those relationships with our current and prospective athletes and helping them reach the goals that they have set for themselves."