Emily Nothnagle at the collegiate pistol sectionals on February 10, 2019. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The pistol team is proof that leadership can come in different forms.
Redshirt junior Emily Nothnagle and sophomore Katelyn Abeln were voted by their teammates as the Ohio State coed pistol team’s captains for the 2020-21 season Sept. 23. As Nothnagle enters her second season as a captain, Abeln steps into the leadership role as an underclassman, marking a distinct difference in experience between the captains.
Despite the varied levels of leadership experience, head coach Emil Milev said the team has the appropriate captains to lead the team.
“I think we have perfect captains right now, so if you look at Emily and Katelyn, I mean those are the perfect captains — they’re active, they have really strong integrity, they’re not holding back. If they need to tell me or the assistant coach something that is not right, they go and tell it,” Milev said.
Nothnagle is carrying over her leadership and experience from a season ago, serving as a team captain for the 2019-20 season.
The fourth-year pistol team member said she is excited to have another season in a leadership position.
“I thought that I did a good job last year but it’s really cool to get the confirmation from my teammates that they wanted me to serve in this role again, so that made me feel really proud and really excited that we can do good work together and there’s going to be more to come,” Nothnagle said.
Unlike Nothnagle, Abeln will be stepping into the captain position for the first time.
“I felt really honored that the team chose me since I’m only a sophomore and I wasn’t really sure if I was ready for the position,” Abeln said.
Then-freshman pistol team member Katelyn Abeln and then-junior pistol team member Samuel Gens practice shooting in Converse Hall. Abeln set a new individual women’s record for air pistol in a match against Army West Point on Oct. 18-19, 2019. Gens won the 2019 free pistol national championship. Credit: Griffin Strom | Lantern File Photo
Abeln was elected following an impressive freshman season in which she led her team with a 1,125 two-gun aggregate average for the season, which is the combination of her sport pistol and air pistol scores. She earned first-team All-American honors in air pistol, standard pistol and women’s sport pistol.
Air pistol events involve an 11.5 millimeter target that is 10 meters away fired at with an air pistol that shoots .177 caliber pellets. Sport and standard pistol events include either a 100mm or 50mm target 25m away that is fired at with a pistol firing .22 caliber bullets.
She also earned Team USA’s 2021 Olympic alternate position for women’s sport and air pistol at the Olympic Trials in March.
Milev and his coaching staff were involved in the first step of the selection process — which entailed a slate of questions to determine who would be recognized as candidates for captain.
“The idea behind it is some people may want to be a captain, but they may not have any idea or any desire to work with the team, just to wear the badge,” Milev said.
Three Zoom calls followed the selection of candidates, who gave their ideas on the upcoming season and why they wanted to be captain. Captains were then elected through an anonymous vote consisting of only the players, Milev said.
With COVID-19 impacting all collegiate athletic seasons, Abeln said she intends to use her role as captain to help build the team chemistry and work hard toward a competitive season.
“Really focusing on keeping a positive atmosphere is our main goal especially with everything going on right now, like the season is so undefined and everything’s changing everyday,” Abeln said. “Keeping everyone in the right mindset and just working hard throughout this time and not slacking off even though we don’t have competitions this semester.”
Nothnagle wants to focus on keeping a tight-knit team even with new COVID-19 practice restrictions that limit their range partners to only three-to-four athletes on the team at a time.
“We’re also putting a focus on team building stuff this year. Our team has been super, super close in the past so not being able to be all in the range usually at the same time has definitely been difficult for us so we’re trying to find new, creative ways to keep everyone in touch and working hard and just enjoying being on the team,” Nothnagle said.
