Jeff Hooker grew up hunting deer and water fowl in Forest Grove, Ore.

He’s still involved with shooting, but there are no blood, guts and carcasses anymore.

Hooker is the air riflery coach at Kailua High School, and daughters Caitlin and Kayla are on the team.

Caitlin, a senior, won the Oahu Interscholastic Association girls air riflery individual championship last season with a career-high score of 518.09 (out of a possible 600). Kayla is a freshman.

Jeff Hooker’s background in guns and hunting helped lead to his hiring at Kailua, but at the time he knew nothing about air riflery.

"The high school was kind of in between coaches four years ago and I was asked," he said. "Growing up in the Northwest, being an avid shooter and hunter, they thought this would be a good transition."

He added: "I had to do a lot of research, a lot of reading, took a couple of classes and got us up to speed."

He and his wife moved to Kailua 16 years ago. Jeff Hooker found out about the school’s air riflery position from Tammy Sanekane, his sister-in-law and long-time Kailua girls JV basketball coach. After he was hired, Sanekane became his assistant.

Caitlin and Kayla both got interested in air riflery right after their father became coach.

Caitlin, a freshman at the time, was one of eight air riflery shooters in her father’s first season.

"It’s more relaxed because I’m comfortable with him so I can joke around with him," Caitlin said when asked what it’s like to have her father as coach. "I give him more attitude, too, than I would to other coaches and stuff, but I think it makes it more homey and easier for me to concentrate."

This season, the Surfriders air riflery team is up to 22 shooters, said Jeff Hooker, a fire investigator with the Honolulu Fire Department.

"It isn’t just stand on the line and shoot," he said. "There is a lot of technique involved and focus. Once we learned how to teach that, the kids’ scores started to improve and our ability to explain the techniques got better. I think that’s largely in part why we have such a big team today."

Air riflery is comprised of three positions: prone, standing and kneeling. The targets are 32.8 feet (10 meters) away. In competitions, each shooter fires 20 shots from each position. A bull’s-eye is worth 10 points, with each ring out from the center scoring one fewer point.

Shooters are given 30 minutes to complete the prone discipline, 40 minutes for standing and 30 minutes for kneeling.

"You have to be really patient because you’re sitting there and standing there for a long time," Kayla said. "You have to get comfortable with the positions and that’s probably the hardest part."

The key for any shooter is having proper skeletal/bone support, especially for the standing and kneeling positions. The main principle is tucking the triceps of your support arm flush against the side of your torso with the forearm virtually straight up. The technique should help shooters gain stability and reduce flinching and jerking.

"You don’t want to be holding the rifle with muscle because muscle fatigues," said Jeff Hooker, who is certified as a National Rifle Association Level 1 rifle and pistol instructor. "From the concrete floor up, everything that’s holding the rifle has to have some type of bone structure holding it. Each position is centered on bone support from the ground up."

Caitlin is averaging a score of 491 this season, while Kayla is at 435.

"I try to be (as good as Caitlin), but she’s been shooting for so much longer than I have, so she’s way better than I am," Kayla said.