COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — This week a local athlete is competing at the U.S. Junior Olympics in air rifle. <\/p>\n
She’s been breaking records since she started shooting a few years ago. And she’s only 15. Kelsey Dardas is an online student, but is on the Fountain-Fort Carson rifle team. We joined her for a training session to see the dynamic between her and her dad. Who happens to be her coach. <\/p>\n
Aiming for greatness is 15-year-old Kelsey Dardas. She’s a sophomore in high school and a really talented air rifle shooter.<\/p>\n
“Her first match which was two years ago she shot a 554 and that was something where I was sitting behind her and I had a couple tears came out because that is something that normally takes about three years to do,” says dad and coach, Jason Dardas. “And she did it in less than 30 days.”<\/p>\n
Kelsey’s inspiration, her dad. <\/p>\n
“Back in first grade and I remember him telling me about all the things he did,” says Kelsey Dardas. “World Championships, Championships of Americas and I have always wanted and been so excited to do it.”<\/p>\n
Jason’s been serving in the U.S. Army for nearly two decades. And is also a highly decorated shooting athlete. <\/p>\n
“I was a former Junior World champion in my past years,” says Jason. “I’ve been a long time shooter since I was about eight.”<\/p>\n
Like father like daughter. The pair now work together at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic shooting range. Jason is both dad and coach.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of head butting, or disagreement we’ll call it,” says Jason. “You are wearing the dad hat and your daughter doesn’t want to listen to you, but then you’ve got to put the coach hat on and they have to listen to you.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It can be a little rough sometimes just kind of because I don’t want to listen to him but I know I should,” says Kelsey.”<\/p>\n
Despite navigating the unique relationship Kelsey is very grateful for her father’s expertise.<\/p>\n
“I am glad that he’s my coach because I feel like if it was anybody else I wouldn’t excel as fast as I have,” says Kelsey. “Not because he has so much experience, but because he’s my dad.”<\/p>\n
That connection has helped Kelsey climb the ranks fast. And she’s on target for more records and national titles. <\/p>\n
“She’s had 17 national records already in just a short time,” says Jason. “The first year she amounted up 12 national records. So just in the last year she’s gotten another 5. She is now hitting the next age bracket so it is going to open up more record.”<\/p>\n
For now, the pair are working on hitting the right balance between having fun and achieving new and harder goals each year. <\/p>\n
After the event this week, U.S. Nationals are up next in June. And Kelsey hopes to be named to the World Championship team later this year. The teen has a long list of dreams on and off the range. Including the Olympics, enlist in the army and higher education. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — This week a local athlete is competing at the U.S. Junior Olympics in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-574039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}