At 6 a.m, long before the school day at Oak Harbor High School begins, several students head into the field house, set up a rifle range and hone their marksmanship skills.

They practice three days a week and finish before school starts. The regimen also allows the team to complete their practice without affecting other student activities.

The efforts of the 10-member JROTC air-rifle marksman team appears to have paid off, they haven’t lost a match in their conference this past year and they recently placed third in a national JROTC competition.

“It requires an awful lot of self discipline, focus and attention to detail,” said Cmdr. Mike Black, who coaches the rifle team.

Some of the teammates echoed Black’s comments.

“It’s all a mental game. It just takes time and practice,” said senior Michael Poggie, who’s been a member of the rifle team for the past two years.

“There’s a limit to how good you can get,” said teammate Albert Lorica.

The team uses a compressed-air pellet gun. They fire from a 10-meter distance and compete in three events — prone, standing and kneeling, and have a 20-shot limit for each position.

The team participated in 10 competitions this year, and members had their sights set on going beyond local shootouts.

“We made the goal of competing on a national level,” team member Tom Chandler said.

Half of the marksmanship team ventured to Fort Benning, Ga. last month and competed against other Navy JROTC units from around the country. They earned a third-place finish in that competition. That accomplishment allowed them to compete against junior ROTC service units from across the country.

Black said the Oak Harbor team placed ahead of the two higher-seeded Navy squads.

The Oak Harbor High School air rifle marksman team has received national recognition several times in recent years. The team finished fourth last year against other Navy ROTC units and placed 9th in the same competition in 2003.

Some team members are considering attending one of the various military academies once they graduate from high school.

The JROTC team at Oak Harbor High School has a tradition of having students go on to the military academies where they continue to participate on a rifle team. Tom Bender, who graduated in 2004, competes on the Air Force Academy rifle team while Micheal Amersbach, who graduated in 2002, competes on the Coast Guard Academy rifle team.

“There’s a long tradition of good shooters here,” Black said.