Brother and Sister team up for UK rifle dominance
January 31, 2014
By Kevin Erpenbeck
Many players on a competitive sports team consider one another family as the season progresses.
For one team in particular, it can claim an actual family relation in its brother-sister duo who have helped lead their rifle sqaud since 2012.
Red-shirt senior Aaron Holsopple and senior Emily Holsopple grew up rifling. Originally from Wilcox, Penn., the two were coached by their dad, Mark.
They said there really isn’t a sibling rivalry, but rather they help each other out.
“There’s no sugarcoating between us,” said Emily Holsopple, a biology major and neuroscience minor.
Aaron Holsopple, a marketing and management double major, admitted that it is no competition between the two, as his older sister has always been better.
“I get a lot of my motivation from her,” he said. “I try to feed off of her and keep up with her as best as I can. I may beat her every now and then, but she really is just a motivation character to me.”
In 2013, the two helped lead the team to a second place finish at the 2013 NCAA Rifle Championships.
“They both bring their own version of intensity,” head coach Harry Mullins said. “But their work ethic and desire is similar. They just have different ways of expressing it.”
Mullins said while they can be seen as one unit, he views them separately with similar traits.
Emily Holsopple has had success from the moment she arrived at UK.
She was selected to the All-America team in her freshman year in both air rifle and small-bore, which is a .22 caliber rifle.
She also helped the team win the 2011 NCAA Championships by shooting a score of 590 out of 600 in air rifle on the final day of the championship.
Since then, she has been selected to the All-America in air rifle and small-bore every year for the Cats.
“I don’t really long for awards,” she said. “I just keep challenging myself because I know there’s something bigger out there. My goal goes beyond college rifle.”
After she graduates, she plans on going to Colorado to train as an Olympic athlete.
Aaron Holsopple began his collegiate career at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2009, where his team only lost one match on the season and finished as runner-up in the NCAA Championships.
In 2011, he earned All-America status in small-bore and was selected for Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association All-America honors.
After the 2011 season, he transfered to UK to to be closer to home.
“He’s a hard worker,” Mullins said. “He’s very passionate about what he does, and he has a special skill set with the rifle that we thought fit our team.”
As they both strive to win the conference and national championships this year before they graduate, Mullins knows he is losing two of his strongest shooters on the team.
However, as the siblings finish their collegiate careers, he knows the “family” will not be broken up.
“We’re all brother and sisters here,” Mullins said. “We’re all Wildcats, and we’re all a close family … We just continue to strengthen those bonds and build our team chemistry to pursue those national championships and conference titles.”
