Brandon shooter golden at NAIG

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This article was published 03/08/2023 (898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Zerick Dysart-Waterman was barely a year old the last time Manitoba sent a rifle shooter to the North American Indigenous Games.

He ended that drought in a massive way. The 16-year-old Brandonite swept the 16-and-under category in Halifax in July, capturing three gold medals at the quadrennial event.

“It was really exciting for a first time going to a competition like that,” Dysart-Waterman said.

He’s still fairly new to the sport. He started at age 13 as his family — which has ties to South Indian Lake and Nelson House in northern Manitoba — has a strong hunting background. When his parents, Trevor and Charlene, moved to Brandon, they got into competitive shooting but still hunt deer every year.

Zerick joined the Brandon Wildlife Association’s junior rifle program and was hooked in a hurry. He got his first big taste of competition at the junior air rifle nationals in March in Truro, N.S. When they landed in Halifax en route to the event, coaches Mike and Katarina Knipping saw the NAIG ads and suggested Zerick enter.

The process wasn’t simple. Trevor approached Sport Manitoba on the Monday after the event and asked how Zerick could enter the rifle shooting event. Team Manitoba didn’t have any athletes or a coach.

Trevor asked what he’d have to do and was informed of the list of courses and certifications to qualify.

“They said ‘It’ll be super impressive if you can pull this off, but if you can we’ll find you a spot.’ So 79 days later, certified rifle coach. We were able to get him in,” Trevor said.

Once he was in, Zerick practised just about every day at the BWA shooting range. He had to shoot from standing, kneeling and prone positions at targets 50 metres away.

At the Games, athletes competed in the three-position event — firing 20 rounds into four targets in 30 minutes from each position — and a prone-only event with 60 rounds.

Zerick had the high score in both three-position rounds — scoring 440 and 491 while the next best store in either round was 382.

He won the prone event with 507 of a possible 600 points, 40 clear of Saskatchewan’s Cole Ratti.

Zerick’s total score of 1,438 was nearly double the average in the nine-athlete field.

“It wasn’t much of a surprise,” Zerick said. “My expectations, there wasn’t much change from when I was practising. It felt the same shooting and practising.

“Being a part of Team Manitoba after 15 years of someone not doing it for Manitoba was kind of a big deal for me. It was pretty exciting.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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