SFC Jeremy Mangione joined The Citadel rifle team for the Spring 2020 semester as the volunteer assistant coach as he prepares for retirement from the United States Army.
Throughout the past 20 years, Mangione has deployed nine time in support of the Global War on Terrorism. He hails from some the Army’s most selective units, including the 75th Ranger Regiment, the United States Army Marksmanship Unit, and the Asymmetric Warfare Group.
Mangione successfully completed three military sniper courses along with a host of other tactical marksmanship clinics before moving on to compete at the national, then international, marksmanship levels where he earned the Presidents Hundred Tab and the Gold Excellence in Competition Rifle Badge. Mangione’s most notable wins include the 2014 All Army Long Range Competition, the Farr Trophy 1000-yard Match, and placing 9th overall for American prone at the Small-Bore Nationals in 2013. He also contributed to the 2013 Dewar Team’s international victory as a firing member, and helped his team set a new Long-Range Palma Team Service Rifle record in 2010. In 2012, he led United States Army Marksmanship Unit Service Rifle teams to seven victories as the team’s assistant coach. One of which being a new 1,000-yard Interservice Service Rifle record at Quantico, Va.
When he wasn’t competing, Mangione developed instructional material and curricula for conventional, special operations, and Department of Homeland Security forces. He provided expertise to the Army sniper capability gap conference regarding capability limitations, equipment needs, and training solutions to face current and emerging threats. Mangione led NATO Pistol Self Defense Courses and was a Senior Instructor and integral team lead in establishing the Marksmanship Branch for the Afghan Army, Afghan Special Operations Forces, and the Afghan Female Officers Candidate School.
Mangione assumed the position of Senior Instructor/Writer for the United States Army Sniper Course in 2013 where he led a team of Army researchers and performance enhancement psychologists to gather metrics for course curriculum modifications. Simultaneously, he assisted the development of Army Marksmanship and Sniper doctrines. Mangione was later requested as a military consultant to NATO ally Sniper Training Centers. In 2016 he became the Small Arms Subject Matter Expert for the 101stAirborne Division (Air Assault) where he standardized marksmanship training for the Division. This included serving as an advisor to senior leaders in goal setting techniques and tenets of performance enhancing psychology to develop training strategies that improved units combat readiness prior to deploying in support of the Global War on Terror.
The 2019-20 season saw The Citadel Bulldogs win seven head-to-head matchups during the regular season, including a season sweep over Wofford and Georgia Southern, while also beating VMI’s mixed team for the third time in four meetings over the last two seasons.
The Bulldogs’s mixed team, ranked 22nd in the final Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) poll of the season, ended the campaign with a fourth-place effort at the 2020 Southern Conference Rifle Championships, finishing fourth in both guns.
Senior Alexander McAlear and freshman Cameron Bates picked up All-SoCon honors. McAlear picked up second-time honors in air rifle with a 10th-place finish in the finals, while Bates picked up first-team plaudits in smallbore with a fifth-place effort in the finals.
Following the season, nine Bulldogs were named CRCA Scholastic All-Americans, including seniors Tierra Price and Victoria Krone, junior Max Brabston, sophomore Emily Perkins and freshmen Kyle Goodwin, Stephen Griffin, Emma McCorkle, Demi Perez and Taylor Swiger.
