Nov. 29, 2007

FAIRBANKS, AK- Alaska Nanooks head rifle coach Dan Jordan announced the signing of Amy Steiner of Fairbanks to a National Letter of Intent for the 2008-09 season. She will enter the University of Alaska Fairbanks with four years of eligibility remaining.

"Amy is really going to fit in well with the team," said Jordan. "She is energetic and has a great work ethic as well as the desire to shoot big scores. With a little bit of coaching and some exposure to a team of this level, she is really going to do well in the future."

Like Jordan, Steiner also has high expectations of herself as a competitor. "I knew I wanted to keep shooting: one of my long-term goals is to qualify for the Olympics and compete at that level, so I was looking at high-profile programs," she said.

But it was more than just the rifle team that attracted Steiner to coming to Alaska. "I'm looking at going into engineering - I really like Physics - so I wanted [the school to have] strong engineering and physics departments," Steiner said. "Also, I didn't want to be taught by TA's [teaching assistants]. That eliminated half the schools I was looking at."

Two of the schools and regular opponents of the Nanooks, Texas-El Paso and Murray State, were high on Steiner's list along with Alaska. According to the WVHS senior, it came down to Murray and Alaska in the end.

"They're the same size school and they both have pretty strong engineering and physics departments so it really came down to rifle team," she said. "Alaska is better and I really like [Coach] Dan. He's been one of my personal heroes for a while, even before he was coaching."

Steiner is a four-year member of the Wolfpack rifle team. In 2006, she was a part of the squad that went 9-0, en route to setting the state record with a team aggregate of 4126. She has career bests of 577 in the smallbore and 580 in the air rifle.

In addition to her prep shooting accolades, Steiner participated in the 2006 and 2007 Junior Olympics.

Next fall, Steiner will join a youth-laden Nanook squad she is already somewhat familiar with. She shot two years with WVHS graduate and redshirt freshman Ida Peterson and also knows Monroe grad and sophomore Layne Lewis from the Fairbanks shooting community. She also became acquainted with another Nanook, freshman Taylor Beard, through her experiences at the Junior Olympics.

"It will be a comfortable environment to shoot in which will be fun," she said. "I'm really excited about it because the team is young but really competitive. They all have close scores and they're all improving. Nobody on that team is happy about being on the bottom so I think it's going to do great things for my scores and my work ethic."

While shooting is her primary passion, Steiner also holds a black belt in Tang Soo Do.

A University of Alaska Scholar, Steiner plans to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering at UAF: a stepping stone for her ultimate academic goal of obtaining a doctorate in aerospace engineering.

She is the first rifle recruit to sign with the Nanooks in the early signing period.