USPSA'S Man On The Ground
by Kim Williams
(Interview appears in March/April 2005 Issue of Front Sight Magazine)
There's this little range in Illinois...perhaps you've heard of it? It's called PASA Park and USPSA has had a few small matches there over the years. You may have attended a couple. If so, then you've probably met the focus of this issue's Safety Area, instructor trainee Ray Hirst. For more than two decades Ray has been putting out the goods in Barry, delivering quality matches to a consistent standard so that whether you love or hate Barry, you can't help but have a good time tearing up the stages. Here's what Ray had to say when I managed to get him to sit still long enough to get the goods on him:
K - Let's start with the requisite personal stuff first. Are you married, any children, where do you live and work?
R - I'm single, but I do have a better half by the name of Mary Ann that I have been with for 11 years. Yes, there is someone tough enough to put up with me. No children. I work at Gardner Denver in Quincy in the design and product maintenance section of their rotary screw air compressor product line. I have worked there for going on 28 years now. I live in Quincy, Ill., but originally I grew up in Barry, the home of PASA.
K - How did you get started in shooting sports?
R - Richard Metcalf introduced me to .22 silhouette shooting back in 1980. I really wasn't that interested in shooting back then as PASA wasn't even a club at the time and there were only 10-12 people that would show up for matches. I didn't even own a gun at the time. I think I have a couple now. The Masters coming to PASA in 1986 is what really got me involved in the shooting sports. There was a huge push from the community and PASA members for the Masters. We spent many long hours at the range building the Master's ranges. I was hooked on shooting after seeing some of the best shooters in the world come into PASA to shoot that first year of the Masters. It has been a real passion of mine since then.
K - When did USPSA come into the picture?
R - The very next year after the Masters, PASA approached USPSA about hosting the 1987 USPSA Nationals. When PASA got the contract for the 1987 Nationals PASA didn't even have one single shooting bay set up for practical shooting. We built six bays that first year from nothing but a wooded valley. We spent many months cutting brush and trees before and after the bulldozers came in to push up the berms for the shooting bays. There was also construction that had to be done that first year: things like wall sections built, putting together Pepper popper bases, and on and on. We had to have huge wood bases to keep the poppers in calibration because of the sand. Not too many people remember, but the first couple years at PASA the ranges had a sand base. The ranges were so new and so soft we brought in truckload after truckload of sand the first year to make sure we could have a match without sinking to your knees in mud if it rained. Ah, the good old days.
K - When did you get started with officiating?
R - In 1987 I worked as a PASA volunteer at the USPSA Nationals. I was yet to be certified as a RO. I had only shot a few USPSA matches at PASA, as we did not start holding USPSA matches until a few months before Nationals. Dave and Marilyn Stanford thought it a good idea that the host club should actually be a USPSA club. I didn't buy my first gun for practical shooting until two months before Nationals. It was an Ed Brown comped .45. The guys that I met and worked with were great and we had a good time that week. It was just something I found that I liked doing. I worked my first Nationals at PASA the next year as a certified RO. I worked on a stage called "Night Moves" with Lorin Orpwood as my CRO. It was my first introduction into stage "gamers." The stage required you to load out of the drawer and have no mags on your person. Most people either loaded out of the drawer or stuck a mag in their pocket for the reload for the second shooting position on the stage. I can still remember Ken Tapp coming to the stage with a big magnet in his pocket. He pulled the gun out and stuck a mag to the magnet in his pocket so he could make a quick reload away from the drawer. Jerry Barnhart overheard the stage ROs talking at lunch about it. Jerry didn't inform the rest of the Super squad about what he was going to do. I think Rob Leatham called Jerry a little weasel after he shot our stage with the magnet in his pocket. Jerry was all smiles as he had just gotten one up on the master, Rob.
K - Do you remember the breakdown of your certification levels from range officer to range master?
R - Dave and Marilyn Stanford taught my first RO class shortly after the 1987 Nationals. They thought it a good idea that PASA have some certified ROs, what with hosting the Nationals. The very next year Andy Hollar came in and taught a CRO class. I worked my first Nationals as a CRO in 1991 on a stage called "Slots." It was so hot that year as the temperature got above 100 all five days of the match. We had three or four ROs pass out from heat exhaustion. I have worked as a CRO for most of the Nationals since then. I went through the range master course under Jay Worden in 2002-2003. If you are interested, certified CROs should take the course. Having already produced several Nationals as match director and with working countless matches, the course didn't teach me a lot, but I did learn a few things. That being said, I think it's a great course and if you're interested, most people will get a great deal out of it.
K - To say you have worked a lot of matches would be an understatement. Do you have some idea of just how many you've worked over the years?
R - I think I have worked 38 National Championship matches. I would hate to try to count the other major matches I have worked.
K - Do you have any favorite matches that stand out as a staff member?
R - USPSA Nationals has always been my favorite because of the number of good shooters you see, and the quality of the stages that Nationals has almost always brought to the table.
K - Do you have a favorite as a shooter?
R - Area 4 has always been fun for me the last few years. Mainly because shooting with my Lee family is always a great time. I think most people have heard of them.
K - What about your least favorites?
R - The matches I shot poorly at. Man, there are a lot of them. Too many to go into in this little space.
K - Well despite your shooting skill, your area of expertise seems to be in match production. Would you say that's accurate?
R - Yes and no. Match production is what I have a reputation for, but I wouldn't have got that reputation without all my background from working all those Nationals and Area matches over the years -- all before I started doing match production as match director. You need that background to understand what is involved with putting on a good match. Especially when it comes to getting the stages up and running and bullet proofed as much as possible. You can't be a good match director and not be a good RM/CRO. That's my opinion anyway, they go hand in hand.
K - Do you prefer that to say, RM or RO/CRO?
R - I like being MD more than anything else but that being said it's a hard job that requires a lot of hours, and it has a high degree of burnout. It's good sometimes to just show up at a match and have nothing to worry about but running a stage.
K - What are some of the challenges or obstacles you find unique to match production?
R - The challenge is always in the details, in thinking so far ahead, and in problem solving as things come up -- and they always do. It requires you to have your fingers on so many things. The most important thing you can do is find good people to help you. I have been really lucky in that regard with being able to rope Deb Hawkins and Troy McManus to work with me closely on the Nationals and other major matches. Deb and Troy are both great with details and keeping me on track with what needs to be done. That's one of the keys. You have to have good people around you that you trust to give any job, knowing they will get it done right.
K - Let's switch gears now from matches to the classroom. What made you decide to go one step further and become an instructor for NROI?
R - John Amidon asked me. I had toyed with the idea since I had become a certified RM. I made the decision when John came to me and asked me to become an instructor. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I knew most of the other instructors pretty well and thought I would enjoy the experience.
K - Do you think you'll make a good instructor?
R - I have no idea if I will make a good instructor or not. I have a good background and I think I know a good deal about running a stage and what a RO should and shouldn't do. Hopefully I can keep a few new ROs from making the same mistakes that I have made. That will be my challenge: getting what I know across to the new ROs.
K - Do you hope to bring a fresh new perspective to the instructor corps?
R - I don't know about bringing a fresh new perspective at all. I have no idea what and how things are currently being taught. I haven't seen a class since 1989, so it's been a while. I might be able to better answer that once I have sat in on a few classes. I think maybe I will bring an old perspective instead of a new one if that makes sense.
K - Are you nervous?
R - Yes I'm nervous! I hate getting up in front of people for speeches or teaching. Hopefully this will be good for me and for the new ROs.
K - What motivates you to volunteer and do so much for the sport?
R - Practical shooting/USPSA has been very good to me and for me personally. It's just my way of paying back. Too few people pay back what this sport has given and done for them. I'm not going to be one of them.
K - Do you think USPSA is headed in the right direction as far as membership, marketing, juniors, divisions, etc?
R - Yes and no. Some things about USPSA are great and some need a lot of work.
K - Like what? What do we need to do to change or what do we need to work on?
R - Membership is one of the main things that needs work. It's just a very intimidating sport to come in off the street and participate. We do a great job of training ROs but we basically do nothing to train or mentor new shooters. I have long said USPSA needs trained instructors and programs for new shooters to the same degree that we have RO training. I see new shooters come in and drop out just about as fast as they come in because they are intimidated by the level of shooters that are participating at even local matches. There needs to be a buddy/mentor system for new shooters, basically volunteers that would mentor a shooter for a year. People to help teach them about USPSA, show them the right equipment, help them to pick a division to shoot in and just be a friend. That is what I see that is wrong. We alienate and intimidate new shooters. I have been to several clubs for the first time that have not been a good experience. If they don't know you they look at you like you are some sort of Martian. You have to be pretty thick-skinned to push past that at a lot of clubs. The level of acceptance needs to change at the local level if USPSA is to grow like it should for being such a great sport. I'm sure some clubs do a great job but I just have not seen that overall.
K - What about NROI? What do you think we can do to improve RO recruitment and retention?
R - A lot of USPSA members think that ROing is just the place people that can't shoot go to participate in the sport. That perspective needs to change because it creates a poor level of respect. What follows is resentment from the ROs and the same level of disrespect and burnout from the ROs. Things have greatly improved in that regard but they still have a good distance to go from both sides. It's my opinion that every USPSA member should be a certified RO even if they never work as an RO. It would give them a better understanding of what the sport is all about and help the rules arguments.
K - Do you see a problem with the Us vs Them thing?
R - Not really a major problem but it's still there to some degree. Overall it isn't not as a big problem as it was a few years back.
K - Do you think anything can be done about that?
R - I don't think it can be completely eradicated -- that is just human nature. We just need to keep going in the direction that we have in the last few years with cutting the Us vs Them down.
K - What advice would you give new shooters?
R - Only go as fast as you can safely maneuver through a course of fire. That is what I see most new shooters doing. They want to move as fast as the guys that have been doing this for 10-15 years. The gun handling skills are just not there yet. New shooters need to understand that there is just as much fun to be had in just shooting the stages regardless of how well you do. That's my opinion anyway. I didn't understand that before, but I do now. It's about being with your friends and having a good time for most of us. It's different for the elite shooters but that isn't what USPSA is about. It's about the regular guys that come out once a month and just want to have a good time with their friends on a weekend. That's the heart of USPSA.
K - What about new range officials?
R - Listen to what experienced ROs tell you and don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't know something. If you are not sure about something, don't guess. Ask the person who is at the next level of command above you. That's their job. That is what I see new ROs do wrong more than anything. They get caught in a spot and don't know what to do, so they "wing it," so to speak.
K - What do you think is the most fundamentally important thing to teach students attending your seminars?
R - Gun Safety! If you get nothing else out of a class it would have to be gun safety. Always err on the side of safety. You can fix just about everything else that goes wrong except an error in that regard.
K - Any interesting, amusing and/or disturbing anecdotes you'd care to share with us?
R - No nothing in that regard. Well, nothing I want in print anyway.
So there's the straight dope on Ray, right from the man himself. As of this writing, he's busily preparing for the 2005 Nationals that will once again be held at PASA Park in Barry, Illinois. If you're lucky enough to attend, be sure to shake Ray's hand. Wish him luck with his instructor training and thank him for all his hard work through the years. USPSA owes him a BIG debt of gratitude for such selfless and tireless dedication and NROI is lucky to have him coming aboard.
