SASS American Heritage Invitational Series?

[Boothill Bandit, SASS# 48598]

American Heritage Invitational Series

Obviously, our sport is tied to the old west and when you think of the old west, the names of the cow-towns, railheads, and boomtowns come to mind. Names like Dodge City, Cheyenne, Ft. Smith, Tombstone and others rapidly fill the list. I think it would be an interesting endeavor to go to these cities that are so rich with our western heritage not only as a tourist, but as a competitor as well. We have some darn good shooters in SASS. But while they may be able to compete and are successful at a state or regional level, not every shooter has the means, ability, or schedule to get to Phoenix for Winter Range or Albuquerque for EOT to see where they stand up against other top shooters. But what if there were to be a SASS venue that would allow those top shooters, to see how they would fair against their category peers at different locations? Maybe they can’t get to Phoenix in February but could get to Wichita or Carson City in July. To qualify, one would have to have placed in the top five in their category at a state or higher level. A similar event was recently done in Sparta, IL with the US Open. But we could add a twist to the idea by having an invitational held at a different location each year in the cities that are so prominent in our cowboy history. In no particular order, and certainly not all inclusive, the following is a list of just some of the names of old west cities and towns that come to mind:

Dodge City

Laramie

Virginia City

Tombstone

Ft. Smith

Abilene

Ft. Worth

Cheyenne

Wichita

Deadwood

Silver City

El Paso

Billings

Sheridan

Miles City

San Antonio

Denver

Santa Fe

Carson City

 

Granted, some of the club ranges in these places may not have the facilities to be able to support a large number of shooters. Or the clubs may not have enough members or infrastructure to organize such an undertaking. Heck, some of these cities don’t even have a SASS affiliated club nearby. But if through a selection process that evaluated clubs with ranges that could support up to three or four hundred shooters or so, that would create a list of eligible clubs that would host the "SASS American Heritage Invitational". SASS would need to be the main organizing entity for continuity from year to year and eligible clubs would sign up for participation selection and scheduling. SASS would probably need to provide an "umbrella" of support for the local clubs in terms of administrative and logistical support. The local clubs would obviously be the "boots on the ground" to provide coordination of points of contact to SASS for logistical support. This could be beneficial to not only our sport but to the clubs and cities that host these events. SASS itself could get more exposure nationally, the local clubs might gain new members, and the local economies could gain from the influx of tourists. What say you?

 

Boothill

[StirrupTrouble]

That sounds like a great idea, and it might generate more buzz about our game and get more people interested. SASS is a challenging sport that I think the increased visibility would attract more people to, especially when they see to do well you have to master three different types of weapons and manually handle all of them, so it is not a case of who has the biggest budget as to who has the best chance to be at the top of the leaderboard. Not only that, but it would be a lot of fun to watch/take part in a match like that