Secondary 4 student Teo Wee Woon looks the picture of calm and composure at West Spring Secondary’s shooting range. As Captain of the school’s Shooting CCA, she is currently soaring at the sport, though the story of how she got into shooting is a rather humble one.
Trading her toy guns for an air pistol
Wee Woon was around eight years old when she began playing shooting games at the pasar malam, or night bazaars, around her neighbourhood. It started out as a fun and casual hobby, but she quickly became good at it.
When it was time to select a secondary school, her parents encouraged her to pick one nearby that offered the Shooting CCA since she enjoyed shooting games so much.
She ended up choosing West Spring Secondary, and went through several selection trials before joining the CCA. Even though she didn’t know anyone else in the CCA initially, she settled into it easily and quickly got the hang of shooting with an air pistol. Her shots were often on target, and her seniors would jokingly ask if she was shooting using auto-aim, a feature in video games that helps players aim.
Wee Woon became the only Secondary 1 student selected to represent the C Division women’s air pistol school team at the NSG – alongside three Secondary 2 students. Even though her individual score was the lowest out of her teammates, the team still came in first at the national level.
Rising through the ranks to become Captain
In the middle of her Secondary 3 year, Wee Woon was selected to become Captain of the CCA – something she didn’t expect as she wasn’t the best shooter in the team, and was more introverted than her teammates.
Ms Revathi Rengasamy, teacher-in-charge of the CCA, shares that Wee Woon was chosen because she was a good role model who can lead her team well and show them what it means to work hard.
Wee Woon’s journey as Captain, however, wasn’t smooth sailing. The year she took charge, the NSG regulations changed. To win, schools had to have the top scores in both the air rifle and air pistol competitions. West Spring Secondary had previously only offered air pistol, which meant that they had to quickly train up a team to compete in air rifle.
Some students made the switch from air pistol to air rifle, but there wasn’t enough equipment for everyone. The school sourced for donated weapons from other schools and shooting associations for the team, but some of these couldn’t function. As Captain, Wee Woon found it challenging to manage the team’s expectations and disputes as they had to learn to share weapons with one another.
Her teachers rallied around to support her and provide advice. Ms Revathi recalls, “When she first became Captain, she would often share her worries and tell me, ‘I cannot do this.’ But I’ll tell her that we can solve it together and that she wasn’t alone in this.”
Wee Woon also shared the stresses she faced as Captain with her form teacher, who advised her to share the responsibilities with her other Vice-Captains and Exco members rather than take them on alone.
Wee Woon learnt to delegate the workload with her Vice-Captains, and they worked out a training schedule so that everyone could take turns to train with the available weapons.
Wee Woon also found joy and camaraderie with her teammates as they exchanged tips to help one another improve their skills and techniques during training sessions.
To lessen the stress of monthly invitational competitions and keep them fun and light-hearted, her teammates would also take turns to buy the others hashbrowns.
Setting her sights higher
With four years of training and experience under her belt, Wee Woon shares that shooting has trained her to be able to focus on her studies for several hours at a time. After all, it is a sport that requires lots of focus, patience and mental discipline.
She plans to further pursue the sport alongside her academics at the junior college level, and hopes to enter National Junior College through the Direct Schools Admission.
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