'It’s about your breathing and staying focused': Barbara 'Birdie' Forgues is ready to take riflery talent to West Point
SHREWSBURY — Every summer, Barbara “Birdie” Forgues spends eight weeks in Colchester, Vermont, at the all-girls Brown Ledge Camp, exploring activities like tennis, horseback riding, water skiing, swimming and kayaking.
A couple of years ago, Forgues, who is a senior captain of the field hockey and softball teams at Marianapolis Prep, found her niche on Brown Ledge’s rifle range. There, her introduction to the details of proper competitive shooting and the art of the sport became her passion.
Forgues recently returned from the USA Shooting National Junior Olympics in Colorado Springs, and next year she will compete for the U.S. Military Academy’s NCAA Division 1 rifle team.
“One summer I came home and told my mother how much fun I had with it,” Forgues, wearing a black and gold Army rifle team T-shirt, said during an interview at her family’s home on Lake Quinsigamond. “I was definitely not good at it right away. It took a lot of practice, and I slowly got better and just found a lot of interest in it.”
Her sophomore year of high school, Forgues and her mom, Tara, began researching area clubs where Forgues could develop her skills.
Forgues began training with coaches Maureen Trickett, who is the Massachusetts state director of the Civilian Marksmanship Program, and Bill Duross at Reading Rifle and Revolver Club, where she is an advanced junior.
The 17-year-old Forgues practices seven hours a week — three hours on Sunday and four on Wednesday — and takes part in about 15 competitions per year.
Her first official match just so happened to be at Army West Point, her dream school since she and her family attended a football game at Michie Stadium five years ago.
“In her first official match, she makes the finals,” Forgues’ dad, Matthew, said. “We had no idea the level she was shooting at early in her career.”
Forgues shoots two kinds of rifles — an air rifle and a smallbore rifle.
In the air rifle category, competitors take 60 shots, standing, at a 10-meter distance to the target, in 1 hour, 15 minutes. The smallbore round is 1½ hours. Competitors take 60 shots, 20 kneeling, 20 prone and 20 standing, from 50 meters.
Forgues’ riflery uniform is a custom-made, thick canvas suit that helps hold her in place, flat boots that stabilize her feet, and an earpiece.
Her pre-shot routine is taking three deep breaths, placing her head on the cheek piece/rest, and another deep breath.
“Then I’m ready to take the shot,” Forgues said. “My heart rate is exactly where I need it to be.”
Concentration, Forgues said, is the key to success.
“It’s about your breathing and staying focused,” she said. “It’s a very meditative sport. When you’re shooting, you can’t think about anything else. Otherwise, you can be in your head, and the shot can be off by a pretty decent amount.”
Forgues’ younger sister, Phoebe, also trains at Reading Rifle and Revolver Club.
“I think it’s remarkable how these kids focus for three or four hours at a time,” Tara said. “Focus, concentrate, get in the game mentally. I’m amazed by this sport, actually.”
When Forgues was a little girl, she spontaneously told a babysitter that her nickname was Birdie Bug Bite.
“I don’t know why,” Forgues said with a laugh, “but it stuck. Ever since, everyone calls me Birdie.”
Army West Point was at the top of Forgues’ college list, and she looked at other schools with ROTC programs.
About a year and a half ago, Army’s rifle coach contacted Forgues and brought her to West Point for a recruiting visit.
“As she started competing,” Matthew said, “colleges were looking at her. We had no idea it was a sport that you can do in college.”
There are 27 NCAA rifle programs. Army’s team is coed.
“The main goal is academics and being a good officer in the Army,” Forgues said. “Those are the two requirements before the rifle team. I had to pass a fitness test, get the (Congressional service academy) nomination on my own, and do well academically. It was a very exciting process, and it’s a huge honor.”
Forgues, who has a 3.89 GPA, will graduate from Marianapolis June 2 and report to West Point July 1 for Reception Day.
The NCAA rifle season runs October to March.
Forgues plans to major in management or economics.
“I feel like the kids (that compete in riflery) I’ve met,” Tara said, “and I’m not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg, but they all seem to be very good students. I don’t know if this three- and four-hour-a-day of focusing, concentrating and breathing has kind of made their ability to focus in school better, or maybe they were already good at that so it’s made doing rifle a little easier on them.”
Matthew said the field training Forgues will do as a cadet is different from her competitive rifle shooting.
“Rifle shooting is a discipline target type shooting,” he said. “It has no transfer or correlation to what she’ll learn at West Point. It’s a different skill set.”
When Forgues was competing at last year’s Junior Olympics in Colorado Springs, she toured the nearby Air Force Academy.
“I liked it,” she said, “but it wasn’t the same feeling I got at West Point.”
Forgues said she did well at this year’s Junior Olympics, competing in the U18 age group, and gained valuable lessons from the experience.
“It’s interesting to see college athletes’ level compared to mine,” Forgues said, “and to study how other people shoot. The first day I was nervous, and my scores weren’t as good as I hoped. The second day I was able to balance that stress with just focusing on the shooting. The more matches you shoot, the more experience you get and the more exposure to the sport helps you improve.”
—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on X, formerly knows as Twitter, @JenTolandTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Shrewsbury's Barbara 'Birdie' Forgues is ready to take riflery talent to West Point
