Oct. 13, 2015
Every Tuesday, the Nevada athletic communications department will post a feature story as part of its Wolf Pack Weekly series. These stories will provide fans with an inside look at the Wolf Pack, and will focus on athletes on the field, in the classroom or in the community.
By Tara Park
Special to NevadaWolfPack.com
RENO, Nev. - Student-athlete Niki Silveria exhibits not only how to excel at the shooting range, but how to succeed in the classroom. Silveria is currently a senior in the accelerated masters program for computer science with a near-perfect grade point average.
Silveria decided to pursue the accelerated masters program when her academic advisor informed her she was ahead in courses due to the AP classes she took in high school.
"I took a little time to think about it and decided I might as well," Silveria said. "The class are a little harder, but if I have the masters credit I can come back or if I find a job, I can still graduate on time with all the credits I'm supposed to have."
Silveria's academic success was also apparent at the high school level. As mentioned, Silveria came to Nevada in good standings because of her focus in high school classes. Even though the entire athletic department stresses academic success for the student-athletes, Nevada's rifle team is especially strict about enforcing good grades.
"I reached out to Coach Harvey and asked him what it would take to get on the team and he replied, 'good grades and some skill.' So that worked out," Silveria said. Silveria is humble when discussing her "some skill" in shooting. Her shooting initially began with BB guns.
"Shooting BB guns was mostly the fault of my granddad," Silveria said. "He used to have a bb gun and we went to grandma and grandpa's for Thanksgiving. The traditional end to the evening was to take someone's soda can and take shots at it-which was fairly entertaining."
This fun family tradition gave Silveria some experience shooting before going into high school. Once there, a teacher approached her with the idea of starting a rifle team and encouraged Silveria to try out. Silveria made the team and later joined the Lincoln Junior Rifle Team in order to compete in more official matches.
She then proved her skill doing well at matches and was given the opportunity to compete as a Division-1 student-athlete. However, Silveria addresses some differences transitioning to Nevada's team.
"Originally when I started shooting it was a very individual sport, so if you shot lower than what you normally did it was just on you and you could beat yourself up about it," Silveria said. "But now when you shoot as part of a [collegiate] team your scores are a conglomerate. So if you don't shoot as well, you feel also like you let down the rest of the team. And I feel like that extra bit of weight made me freak out the first time I shot."
Nonetheless, Silveria has overcome much of that stress and focuses on the more positive components to the Nevada rifle team. She mentions how helpful Coach Harvey has been and the knowledge she has gained from him since coming to the team. She gave an example of how Coach Harvey taught her to improve her breathing.
"[Breathing] is part of your basic shot plan and it's massively important because if you don't breathe, your eyes don't get enough oxygen and you can't see as well which makes a big difference. It seems like something so small but he just reiterates it enough that it stuck. It's been one of those things that has terribly helped me."
Silveria cannot see herself coaching rifle. However, she hopes to stop by and visit the Nevada team and her junior club team from time to time in the future.
"I really feel like I only have tidbits of knowledge. It takes a great deal of study to know how to help people other than just provide tips," Silveria said. W
ith rifle not being Silveria's focus after college, she intends to pursue a career with her computer science degree.
"I'm thinking I want to do something with a mixed field," Silveria said. "I'm not really what they call a heads-down programmer who just sit there and types on a computer all day. I'd like to mix it around-maybe do computer programming with or for some kind of psychological research or something else science related."
Silveria's ability to focus is a key strength that can be applied in her future career plans for computer science and also assists her as she concludes her final season with Nevada rifle.
Wolf Pack Weekly Archive (Last Five)
Oct. 6, 2015 - James Butler, football Sept. 29, 2015 - Khoo sisters, women's golf
Sept. 22, 2015 - Meagan Wood, cross country
Sept. 15, 2015 - Tucker Melcher, football
Sept. 8, 2015 - Lyndsey Anderson, volleyball
