Editor's note: this is part of a series of features being published over the next few weeks on the various sports which make up the 2007 Canada Winter Games, and the athletes who will be representing the Yukon in them.

For the first time in recent memory, Yukon's shooting team will have a full slate of eight and they're all eager rookies.

Ready to unsling their rifles and take out their pistols, what Team Yukon lacks in experience, they more than make up for in spirit.

Set to hit the targets are: 14-year-old Kara Lepine, 15-year-old Nina Herzog, 15-year-old Jakob Breithaupt, 14-year-old Danielle Marcotte, 15-year-old Ryan Burlingame, 16-year-old Nicholas Rittel, 13-year-old Kai Breithaupt and 14-year-old Cassandra Henderson.

Going the distance with them are team coach Ken Speiss and his manager and daughter Sharon.

Each match teams get 40 shots at their target and each shot has a potential of gaining them 10 points.

Shooters choose their weapon, pistol or rifle, and stick to their respective specialties with no crossover.

This is the first time Ken, who's coaching his third Games team, will have a full roster and he says he's just looking for his contenders to enjoy the experience.

'I've been teaching them consistently steady since October. They've been coming up and practicing on their own for the last three years.

'They're going against 20-year-olds. Nobody's going to win a medal but if they stick with it in four year's time they sure could.

'I think they're really going to enjoy the whole aspect of it.'

Ken, a coach of the sport for 27 years, said he's just looking for his team to apply the skills they've been taught and have been practicing, and to prepare themselves for the stress and anxiety an event like the Games brings.

Shooting, says team manager Sharon, is all about relaxation and focus, and that's a lot of what the team's been working on.

'It's classified as bull's eye shooting. The targets they shoot for are very small so they have to remain very still and very calm.

'It all has to do with breathing and your position, how you hold the gun,' she said explaining that controlling your breathing means you can control your heart rate.

'You want to lower your heart rate as much as possible because the lower your heart rate the less you shake. If it's beating really fast because you've just gone for a run and then you try to shoot, chances are you're not going to do very well.'

In order to prepare for the Games, Sharon and Ken have had the team practicing three times a week since October and running them through shooting and relaxation drills.

'They do a half hour of relaxation. They've learned the muscle groups so they can learn to tighten them and relax them as they want,' Sharon, a Games veteran herself, said.

'By the end of the relaxation session they've learned to relax every muscle.'

Stretching and visualization exercises, she added, are also part of the training regimen.

Team members, she said, also work on position, ensuring that their feet are parallel to the target and their gun is held firm.

Jakob Breithaupt, whose competing with the rifle, said he's excited for the Games and is ready to take on the well known contenders from B.C. and Alberta.

'I can't wait, I'll take em all,' he said.

Jakob, who has been shooting for three years, said he got into the sport especially for the Games but stays in it because it goes well with his love of hunting.

'It's just fun, it just links to everything that I do. I love going hunting, there's also the trap range.

'It's good to aim at something and have the trigger go off, it's just a lot of fun.'

A clear and relaxed focus and shooting his own match is how he's going to approach the Games, Jakob said.

Lepine, a pistol shooter, has been shooting for years and feels her experience last year at the North American Indigenous and Arctic Winter Games in other sports will help her with the stress of an event the size of the Canada Winter Games.

'I've been shooting other guns since I was really young, since I was maybe six or seven.

'I started skeet shooting a few years ago with my grandpa, and that was fun. I did that for a while and once I heard about the tryouts in the end of November I got into it.

'This is pretty big but this is my third Games in the past year so I'm not as nervous as I thought I would be.'

Fellow pistol shooter Marcotte said she's also been shooting for a number of years and started getting serious about competition when she tried out for the Canada Games.

'With pistol I started when I came here for qualifications. I kind of caught on to the pistol and I like it a lot.

'I'm a bit nervous. I'll do my best, I don't think I'm way up there with everyone else but I'm going to go out there and do my best,' she said.

Herzog, the team's captain, said she's feeling pretty good about the Games and is going to work on focusing on the target and little else.

'I feel pretty good about it and I'll do well for how I shoot. I try not to have too much go through my mind when I'm shooting.'

Burlingame, also a pistol shooter, said concentration and a positive outlook is going to be part of his strategy.

'I find the concentration something that I just love, having to do the same repetition. If you say, shoot something that you think is going to bring your match down you can't think that, you've got to just think positive.

'If you're doing it right you don't even know when the trigger is going to go, it's just a continual slow squeeze.

'There's a lot of competition there so I'm hopefully going to do good.'

Rittel, who'll be armed with a rifle during the Games, said he's excited about the event but that he's keeping his expectations realistic.

'Well I don't plan on getting any medals because they've all shot somewhere else and I haven't, but I think I can do pretty good.

'I just like to hit the target and then to try to beat that.'

Shooting will take place during Week 1 at the Games, at Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Whitehorse.

Events will be held over four days, on Feb. 27 and 28, as well as Mar. 1 and 2.