The Emmaus Rifle team is one of the top rifle teams in the state, and the experience of head coach Bob Johnston plays a large role in that success.

Johnston requires a certain level of commitment from those who sign up, including evenings free for practice and matches. For those who may not know what type of student athletes participate in the sport, Johnston describes it best.

"I've seen football players that weighed in at around 250 pounds, and I've had diminutive little kids who have been around 100-105 pounds," said Johnston. "It's just a matter of getting them fitted up with equipment and working with them and getting them into the sport.

"This is a very, very tough league, and high scores are fired, so I usually tell kids they can expect to not shoot good enough scored to be counted in matches in their first year. I'm very pleased at some of the scores I've seen this year though."

As we've seen more and more instances of gun violence in our culture, the lessons taught by Johnston are invaluable, and should be learned by all.

"There's been no epiphany here, we begin with the basic grounding in safety," Johnston said. "They have to go through the normal physical that includes a mental health background check.

"We need to know if we have kids on prescription medication, or seeing a psychiatrist. We then show a NRA-released safety video, and get them out to the range and go through safety training again."

The teams compete using .22 caliber bolt-action rifles and shoot a USA-50 Target. Shooters have 15 minutes to complete the target, each team fields 10 shooters with the five best comprising the team score. If a tie exists after five shooters additional scores are used until the tie is broken. The top four regular season teams qualify for the Playoff Championship.

Seth Freeman is one of three Emmaus shooters to score a 98 (out of a possible 100), the highest score posted in the league this season. Freeman spoke about some of the lessons he has learned in terms of safety and responsibility.

"Just keep your finger of the trigger; using your head is the best safety," he said. "We have to take an impact test for concussions, and go through a background check.

"It's a lot of fun, and it's really helped me mature, and has taught me a lot of discipline. You can't just get down and shoot, so it's taught me to work hard."

The Green Hornets defeated Salisbury 473-452 last Tuesday to move to 5-0 overall.