Everett rifle team celebrates 100th straight win

BEDFORD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — One Central Pennsylvania rifle team spent the night celebrating after they won their 100th straight match.

The Everett Area High School Rifle Team received the win after they beat the Shanksville team on Wednesday, Jan. 31.

“I’m a happy pappy. Makes me really proud of the whole team,” Lynn Whetstone, assistant coach for the team said.

Whetstone has been with the Everett Rifle team since the start of the program in 2011. As head coach, he helped to lead the team to their first state championship. Now, as an assistant coach, he says the kids are why he still helps with coaching.

“Most of these team members I had in the junior program and saw them at age 11. I was able to help coach them all through until where they are even the seniors that we’re going to lose this year, all 7 of them. I watched them evolve into great marksmen,” Whetstone added.

Current Head Coach Coltin Rice previously competed with the team for three years. Now, he oversees the team, which has won the last seven state titles.

“The streak includes 8 different rifle teams here. Just to give you an understanding of how long this goes and how big our program has become,” Rice said.

Senior marksman George Kuhne originally got into the sport because of his two sisters. Kuhne said that Whetstone and Rice have created a program that will last a long time past his class’s graduation.

“They put in so many hours,” Kuhne added. “They both work full-time jobs, Lynn is retired but, they just really help out the kids and they put in a lot of hours. I really respect them for what they do and they’ve been very helpful to me throughout my time here.”

While the team celebrated their seventh state title they’re already looking forward to chasing their 8th.

“We are shooting our state championship here in a couple weeks. We’re definitely primed to do another great job and hopefully bring a couple more titles home,” Rice said.

“I tell them every match to reach down inside that big heart of theirs and pull out that champion in there that we’ve coached all along,” Whetstone said.

Congratulations and good luck Everett!