Emily Ozohonish, rifle
Emily Ozohonish always strives for the best that is available.
That’s why the senior at Jefferson-Morgan High School is quite proud of the accomplishments she and her Waynesburg Central rifle teammates pulled off together.
It’s also why Ozohonish, who maintains a 3.9 GPA at J-M, doesn’t just want to become a nurse. She wants to become a nurse practitioner.
Because of those traits, Ozohonish is Jefferson-Morgan’s winter sports female selection in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program. A daughter of Jim and Tracy Ozohonish, of Clarksville, she has one sister, eighth-grader Abby, who plays volleyball and shoots rifle.
“I’ll be going to Waynesburg University to get my BSN in nursing, which is a four-year program,” Ozohonish explained. “Then, I will go to WVU. It’s usually all on-line in the nurse practitioner program and it takes two years.”
So, what’s the difference between a nurse and a nurse practitioner?
“A nurse practitioner is kind of like a PA. It is the highest level you can go in nursing,” she said. “You have to have your nursing degree and once you get it, you are in charge of all the nurses.”
She wasn’t quite in charge of the rifle team at Waynesburg, which invites J-M shooters as a co-op program. But Ozohonish is quite proud of the team and her participation on it. Waynesburg Central won the Section 1 championship this season and she became the only J-M shooter to advance to the state championships.
“It was the first time ever that Waynesburg won the section,” Ozohonish said. “Will they do it again next year, I don’t know. We are losing a lot of seniors.”
She doesn’t plan to shoot rifle in college because it is a more intricate procedure in college than it is in high school.
“In order to be considered for a college team, you have to be able to do three positions: kneeling, standing and perm. High school just does perm,” she said. “I never got into the kneeling or standing. Rifle is my major sport, my only sport, so I might look into coaching maybe. I don’t want to just give it up entirely.”
She also is a member of the Hunting Hills Hawkeyes, a Greene County shooting club. “We’ll be starting up soon, actually.”
“I started shooting for the school when I was a freshman, but I actually started shooting before that in 4H rifle and my parents always encouraged me in that,” Ozohonish said. “I grew up with hunting and fishing, so they always encouraged me to do well, to get better. If I didn’t have their support, I don’t think I would have loved the sport as much as I do.”
Ozohonish learned rather quickly that rifle is a disciplined sport, as opposed to sports that encourage heavy doses of adrenaline.
“They say shooting rifle is 90 percent in your head,” Ozohonish said. “It’s a mental game. It’s all in your head. In other sports, like volleyball or basketball, it’s all based on adrenaline.”
She is also the president of the yearbook.
“I got involved in the yearbook a couple of years ago,” Ozohonish said. “I always kind of stuck around the teachers and yearbook sponsors.”
Not surprisingly, it’s another example of Ozohonish using her head.