MARYSVILLE — When Dan Steffen watches his students win, he feels like he’s winning, too.
Steffen, 63, volunteers about 30 hours a week as a marksmanship coach with Marysville-Pilchuck Navy Junior ROTC and at the Marysville Rifle Club junior program.
Steffen went hunting with his dad ever since he was a young boy and later got into competitive shooting. It became his passion.
The Marysville Kiwanis member even trained at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado but fell a few points short of making it on the Olympic team. He was invited to teach at the center, though, and trained many successful athletes, including three Olympians.
“Dan brings a level of coaching, a level of expertise that is really far beyond mine,” said Cmdr. Randy Brasfield, who leads the school’s NJROTC program.
A total of 137 students are enrolled in the program, which includes air rifle shooting. That’s what Steffen teaches.
“In order to be a good coach, you have to have empathy for your students, and in order to have empathy for your students, you have to have done it yourself,” he said.
One of the key things he tells his students is not to dwell on a bad shot, but to stay positive and focused on the next shot.
That’s what they need to learn to move forward in life, he said.
Steffen and his wife, Vicki, moved to Marysville five years ago from South California to be close to their daughter. Besides, the Pacific Northwest weather is good for Steffen, who is fighting multiple sclerosis.
The degenerative autoimmune condition affects the central nervous system. Steffen said he manages well. He views it as just another challenge.
“It’s just a bump in life. We all need challenges,” he said on a recent morning.
He doesn’t have the stamina to compete anymore, but he can still teach. The disease went to his right side, and Steffen is left-handed. He figures he is living another lesson he likes to teach: What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
He loves showing young people what they can do. He’s helped students get marksmanship scholarships and win competitions they never thought they could even enter. He is training McKenna Dahl, a Lakewood High School student who has become one of the best sharpshooters in the country. She gets around in a wheelchair.
“She is my next Olympic hopeful,” Steffen said with a proud smile.
He does it all for free and wants to keep at it until he can’t.
“These young people are our future. I love watching them develop,” he said.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com
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