.png)
Carlee Valenta Details Quick Rise in Rifle and Journey to UTEP
EL PASO, TX – I’m sure few have gymnast turned NCAA Division I riflers on their bingo card for many college athletes. Who could blame them? There’s likely few exactly like Harrison City, Pennsylvania native, Carlee Valenta.
From the age of three all the way to 18, Valenta was a gymnast. She loved the sport and still has passion for it. However, she had an undeniable natural ability as a sharpshooter and showcased almost unheard of work ethic and drive to go from a young woman more known as a gymnast to a current Division I rifler competing for a Top 25 program presently.
Speaking to Valenta, she has a delicate, welcoming demeanor. But this doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a competitive side. She’s unwaveringly tough mentally and she’s also an insane markswoman. She joined the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) Miners women’s rifle program in August and has quickly become an important part of the team’s success. But choosing to move to Texas and join the Miners was not just about pushing her athletic limits. It also presented the perfect storm in which she could major in elementary education and study English as a second language (ESL). She hopes to teach young people English in the classroom someday soon and recognizes the growing need to accommodate for a higher population of Spanish speakers in the United States.
At UTEP, over 80 percent of students are Hispanic and most speak Spanish fluently. The campus also features a center for Latin American and Border Studies, where students are welcome to discuss and discover more about their heritage and history of their ancestry. With this in mind, what better place to head to college than El Paso; a city that borders Mexico. The Spanish-speaking nation can even be seen from the college campus. It was fate that allowed Valenta to find the perfect fit of her niche academic interests as well as continue competing at the highest level as a shooter. “During my junior year of high school, I really started to realize I loved Spanish,” she explained. “I think what it did for me was we took a field trip with my Spanish class in high school to a museum, and I understood everything the people at the museum were saying in Spanish as well as what my teacher was saying pretty easily. From there, I realized there was a way to combine my passion for helping children and also integrating Spanish. So I decided on elementary education and English as a second language (ESL). It could not have worked out any better that UTEP has great programs and they also wanted me to join their program.”
As mentioned earlier, Valenta didn’t take rifle super seriously until the fall of her junior year of high school. She did compete for a little bit in middle and early high school, but she grew tired of the sport and refocused on gymnastics as her primary sport for a few years. This was until she began to see how much fun her younger sister, Emily, was still having in the sport. Even when she walked away, Emily continued to work and found a deeper appreciation and continued improving. She finally decided it was time to join the rifle team at Penn-Trafford for the 2022-23 school year. Low-and-behold, it was the year that changed the direction of her life. “I wasn’t expecting, and neither were my coaches, that I’d be able to improve like I did. I put in a lot of extra work to get here. I’m thankful for everyone who helped me improve so much in my last two years of high school to make my goal possible of being a college rifle athlete. When I look back, I think the biggest thing was matching that hard work with self belief. Walking into competitions and matches, there’s nobody to lean on. It’s very individualized and you need to control your emotions. I think those years of having to be mentally tough from gymnastics did translate into being tough mentally in rifle.” This school year in 2022-23 was when she started to focus heavily on a future in rifle. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Before picking up the sport of rifle again, she was involved in a serious car accident that resulted in injuries that plagued her for months and even forced her out of her first love of gymnastics. The concussion she suffered took around nine months to fully heal from. After that time is when she started to pour her full attention into rifle and the results started to speak for themselves. In two seasons as a varsity rifle athlete, she became a two-time letter winner, a Section 3 Co-Champion, a WPIAL team runner-up, a WPIAL individual champion, a recipient of the Dave Cramer Perfect Season Award, and a program record holder for the highest season score. In the classroom, Valenta also became an inductee into the National Honor Society, the Spanish National Honor Society, the Spanish Honor Society Vice President, and a four-year high-honor roll student.
In addition to this success for Penn-Trafford both in athletics and academics, she was also competing for Jerome Junior Rifle around the region. The practices and competitions with this organization helped to elevate her competitiveness even more. Two of her club teammates are also college rifle athletes now, showcasing the competitive environment that the club offered. The Westmoreland County native also joined Team Winning Solutions, a community of like minded athletes and families that are centered around the pursuit of a fulfilling shooting experience for athletes across the nation. This group features instructors and coaches who have experience competing and preparing for some of the most competitive events in the world, including the Olympic Games. Being connected with these amazing minds and talents is something that helped Valenta in a variety of ways, including her preparation and the mental side of this incredibly skillful sport. Coming to UTEP this August has also been a very rewarding decision. It was one that made her very homesick at first, but is one she is now very glad to have made. Her head coach, Andrea Palafox, is a UTEP alumni and a decorated rifler in her own right. Palafox was one of just a few coaches who believed Valenta’s quick rise in the sport would translate to the highest level. In a short time as a college athlete, Palafox’s instinct about Valenta has been correct as she’s become a vital part of a team who’s closing in on becoming a Top 10 team in the country according to the national polls.
A little over two years ago, Carlee Valenta was unsure what her future may hold in the sport of rifle. But now as one of the top athletes on her team and for a top program nationally, she can’t help but to feel thankful for her grandpap who got her and her younger sister into shooting guns a few years ago. Shooting guns at pop cans and makeshift targets has now transformed into a sport she can continue competing in well past college; something she intends to do. “I have been turning to a phrase a lot lately in my first semester. ‘What got me here will get me through it’. It can be applied when I’m missing my family or when I’m ready to go compete. I know the skills, habits, and so many people who helped get me here will continue to be what makes me successful. I’m also grateful for the friends and teammates who are now a part of the people who are getting me through it,” she said.
Comments