The purpose of the “Shooter Spotlight” is to help shooters get to know their fellow competitors a little bit better. We cover a wide range of shooters from “Marksman to Master.” This is the 14th interview in the series.
Erik Hoskins
Where do you call home?
Rehoboth, MA
How long have you been shooting?
I started in 1984, retired in 1995 and started back up in 2000.
How did you get involved in shooting competitively?
My Dad’s friend was a competitive pistol shooter and thought it would be a good idea for my brother and I to go to his club in East Providence RI and try out the NRA Jr. Rifle Program.
What is a little known fact about yourself that your fellow competitors might not know?
This is a tuff one, since I like to talk so much, especially about myself and my family, but I bet no one knows that I was very close to going to seminary school, but none of them had a shooting team, so I picked Sports Medicine instead.
What do you consider your finest shooting achievement.
Boy that is a tuff one, I think it is a tie between the fact that I am a Double Distinguished small bore shooter, and the fact that I was inducted in to The Norwich University Athletic Hall of Fame as an individual athlete on my first nomination.
What is your favorite pre-match meal?
(1) Cinnamon Apple Cereal Bar and a bottle of water.
What is your favorite post match drink?
The Old Number 7, with “crushed” ice not “cubed”.
Do you have a favorite shooting memory?
All of my best memories took place during my college shooting years, and the very best one was when I shot a 595 day 1 and a 595 on day 2 of the fall selection prone match in 1992 to put me in first place in the final. What I didn’t expect was to be ahead of Great shooters like Bill Meek, Glen Dubis, Bill Beard, and the like. My first shot was a 10.9, I almost jumped out of my shooting jacket. That was a great time in my life as a shooter.
Do you have any short term and/or long term goals?
No, I really don’t have either right now. One thing I learned a long time ago was that if you are going to have goals, you must make a plan on how to achieve those goals, and then set out and do it. Right now shooting is a lot of fun for me, but is just one thing I do. I have 3 young sons, a great wife, a job, I’m the Cub Master in town, a soccer coach, a baseball coach, I am part of a Dealer Council for the semi trailers that our business sells. I just really don’t have the time to have a plan for shooting. I just shoot, and I love to do it, and I am blessed every day that I get to.
What shooting skill are currently focusing your energy on?
I am trying to improve my site picture with Iron Sites, trying a lot of different combinations so I can see better.
Thanks Erik for sharing a little bit about yourself with the pronematch.com community!
Erik is also very generous in sharing his shooting insight and knowledge with others. His infectious enthusiasm and coaching motivated me at a time when I was in the shooting doldrums. He was also with me at three of the highpoints in, what is laughingly known as, my shooting career: an Intermediate 3P National Championship, a National 4P Team Championship, and my first 1600.
While I managed the first on my own, at the time Erik was a hut mate who learned the delights of jalapeno peppers with me one night that year at Perry, the second two are a direct result of his participation and coaching.
While he is young enough to be my son, a hyperactive near do well one at that, I am delighted that he is one of my closest shooting cronies.
Go Sox!
Thanks for the good words Hap.
Erik
That will be a Jack&coke for Father Hoskins . Has a ring to it . John