Shooting her shot: Aleiah La Trace’s journey with rifle
Every sound that surrounded vanished. Only the lyrics of “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden repeated in senior Aleiah La Trace’s head, allowing her to set her focus on the target alone.
“You just have to tune them out. When I shoot I repeat songs in my head over and over again, because it’s a silent sport. I repeat one song over and over again, and then I’m just hearing that so I don’t hear the stuff around me,” La Trace said.
Securing nines and above in every match out of a possible 10.9, La Trace served as rifle team captain while leading the team in scoring. Joining the team in her freshman year, she remains dedicated to the team.
“When I joined the rifle team in ninth grade, we were coached by the senior Army instructor, Major Williams. He was more strict because we really wanted to be competitive. Ever since then, we see more committed people and our scores go up every year,” La Trace said.
With practice nearly every day following school, students’ time for separate extracurriculars and jobs becomes limited.
“I haven’t really been able to get a job, but I think it (being on the team) helps with commitment for when I get a job. In the summer, I worked jobs (where) I felt way more committed than when I wasn’t shooting a rifle and working,” La Trace said. “Rifle has taught me to stick it out. I would rather shoot a rifle than have a job at the moment.”
Head rifle coach Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Keller began teaching at Cedar Shoals the same year La Trace entered high school. Over the past four years, Keller has witnessed La Trace’s growth in both rifle and Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC).
At the end of her sophomore year, La Trace earned the position of JROTC squad captain before being appointed rifle captain in her senior year. These responsibilities have been obtained through her consistency.
Head rifle coach Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Keller began teaching at Cedar Shoals the same year La Trace entered high school. Over the past four years, Keller has witnessed La Trace’s growth in both rifle and Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC).
At the end of her sophomore year, La Trace earned the position of JROTC squad captain before being appointed rifle captain in her senior year. These responsibilities have been obtained through her consistency.
In the beginning of La Trace’s participation in JROTC and rifle Keller notes her initial lack of confidence in her own skills. A turning point that Keller references is an obstacle course she completed in her freshman year.
“If you fall off, you’re landing in water. It took her a couple of minutes to complete it. But you’ve got to understand, she’s already wet (after falling). And she went through probably 10 different obstacles already prior to her getting there, not even counting the run and everything else prior to that event. So she’s dog tired, and she didn’t give up on that rope. Her parents and coaches saw that everybody was around (to see her finish),” Keller said.
Persisting through obstacles in her path within a course or in difficult conversation, La Trace continues to challenge and better herself, teammates and Keller.
“We teach students to question the thing that is not being asked. And she does ask the questions if she doesn’t understand it. She’ll get clarification if my instructions are not right during practice or when coaching. She knows how to work as a team, and knowing that, that’s half the battle,” Keller said.
“I really hope that there are more opportunities for shooters like me and the people on our team, because these people are highly talented. We’re really good at what we do, and we really want the recognition for our school and community. I do think some of it falls to some of the stigma about shooting for a school team, and some of that does play a heavy role in how we get recognized,”
La Trace’s affection for rifles built from early childhood hunting experiences with her father.
“When I expressed interest in the rifle team, he was really excited about it, because he grew up in Minnesota with a big hunting and rifle culture up there. He actually bought me my rifle, so I shoot with my own personal one in games,” La Trace said.
She remembers hunting in the woods with a bow and arrow as a child. Though the techniques between rifle and archery are different, the time it took to prepare and wait for the doe taught her patience. From an early age she was taught the effect your actions can have to your surroundings.
“It’s (bow and arrow hunting) honestly very similar to a rifle. It’s a lot of patience, because you need to wait for the deer to be still, and then you need to be still, and then you have to line up your shot. And it’s also about putting the animal out of its misery,” La Trace said. “My dad taught me, when he was a kid, his parents gave him two bullets. And they said, ‘you have one shot for the deer.’ The other bullet was so that if it didn’t die on the first shot, then it wouldn’t have to suffer. It teaches you to be patient and also be conscious of what you’re doing to those around you.”
Her father supported her by providing her with space to practice and lessons of patience, and he has donated four rifles to the Cedar Shoals team.
“It helps our scores increase exponentially, because we actually had equipment that worked. In the past our rifles were broken. When I started, most of our rifles using air cylinders (used to propel pellets) were broken,” La Trace said. “He’s helped a lot with keeping me committed and keeping me wanting to do it. Because now, since I have my own rifle, I’m easily able to keep shooting outside of high school.”
Possessing a rifle means that La Trace holds a new responsibility: one that she does not take lightly.
“I think school shootings have played a heavy role in that (the fear of guns). I think that stigma does kind of affect people’s view on it (rifle), even though we don’t do anything like that. We do paper shooting,” La Trace said. “One of the biggest moments after what happened at Apalachee was that we had a rifle meet there. We had a couple of our teammates who had to sit it out. I shot at the meet while understanding and knowing what happened, But then, understanding ‘yes, this could be a weapon, something bad, but I’m using it for something good.’”
Being a part of the rifle team has brought La Trace a space to breathe within a sport that she loves. Rifle continues to be one of her favorite parts of being at school.
“I have a panic disorder that I used to suffer really badly from, because I would get anxious about the future and I couldn’t sit with myself. I was just everywhere and rifle has taught me to learn to sit with myself and actually deal with my emotions as they come,” La Trace said. “Rifle is more of the battle with yourself and in your head, and that’s taught me that I need to think about what I’m doing, but I can’t let my emotions just control what I’m doing. I need to be more aware and less panicked.”
This new perception of handling her emotions then spread into La Trace’s school life. Her anxiety had caused testing to be the perfect incubator for stress. Taking the personal skills rifle had begun to teach her, over her freshman year, her grades began to rise.
“A rifle meet is kind of like a test, because you’re just shooting at the paper over and over again, and each shot matters, kind of like a test. Each question matters. And so a lot of my testing anxiety has gone away because I’m able to sit with myself. I’m able to apply those things that I’ve learned with rifle, with testing. I’m able to center myself and ground myself better,” La Trace said.
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Before finding her connection to rifle, La Trace wrestled with finding something where she truly found comfort. She faced troubles mentally but began turning her life around.
“I always remember I’ve struggled. I went to SummitRidge for outpatient therapy at a mental hospital right before my freshman year, and I thought my life’s going nowhere. I’m doing nothing. I was really depressed constantly,” La Trace said. “I think it was our last meet of the year. We were riding home on the bus. I was just sitting around with all my friends from rifle. It hit me: ‘this is why I stayed here, to do this, this is what I need to do’. Being around my friends and honestly my family, it just hit really hard, and that’s part of why I’ve stayed in rifle for so long.”
The community that the rifle team fosters is aided by the leadership La Trace shares. Keller is thankful for the energy that she offers to the team.
“She’s just a genuinely good person. She has a heart. She cares for people. She cares about what people have to say, and she’s not like, ‘Oh no, I’m the captain. You do what I say.’ She listens and she helps and empathizes with that person and what they’re saying,” Keller said. “They respect her as a captain and a person for her heart. And it takes a lot to be able to do that.”
La Trace plans to continue shooting following high school, and because of the skillset she contributes to the team, she has been granted an offer to shoot at Georgia Military College.
“It’s the first ever for rifle. And I was so proud. She didn’t really shoot that good on that day either, but they know that – they’ve been watching her scores,” Keller said. “I was proud. It was like my own daughter just got a scholarship. It’s very emotional.”
Over the past four years, Keller and the team have witnessed La Trace expand her knowledge in riflery, JROTC and leadership. She has dedicated her time to foster a team that not only works alone while shooting, but also advises together.
“Other than shooting it’s the friendships. It’s such a small team, you end up close to each other, and that’s the best part of rifle, because everybody understands how hard a rifle is to shoot,” La Trace said. “I think it’s important that even though when we shoot we have individual scores and can’t help each other, it’s still a team sport. We work very hard to create a good sense of family and just overall team bonding,”
Becoming a member of the rifle team has given La Trace a found family where she has the moment to share the peace she found with shooting. The resilience she has adopted has changed the way she looks at her life. In the future, La Trace hopes people will recognize the positive impact rifles can have on someone, like they have on her.
“I really hope that there are more opportunities for shooters like me and the people on our team, because these people are highly talented. We’re really good at what we do, and we really want the recognition for our school and community. I do think some of it falls to some of the stigma about shooting for a school team, and some of that does play a heavy role in how we get recognized,” La Trace said. “I do think more recognition and more opportunities such as scholarships could help students want to join. Rifle is good for you mentally, physically, all of it, because it teaches you lessons that you wouldn’t really learn playing other sports.”
