Will Anti enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Nanooks for the 2023-24 season.
In year one, he led the Nanooks to a 6-3, 2-2 PRC record. Under Will, Alaska shot four 4700 aggregate scores and shot their second highest score ever (4720) on Jan. 24, 2021 in a dual-match win over the Air Force Academy.Â
Anti led the Nanooks to Columbus, Ohio for the 2021 NCAA Rifle Championships, giving them their 34th team-appearance at the Rifle Championships.Â
There they finished in fifth place, shooting an aggregate score of 4682, 2326 on day one in smallbore and a 2352 on day two in the air rifle. Freshman Rylan Kissell became Anti's first top-five finisher in the individual events, claiming fourth-place in the individual air rifle championships and taking home seventh-place in the individual smallbore championships.Â
Anti's first year with Alaska also led to four All-American selections and seven Academic All-American selections.
In year two, the Nanooks returned to the podium under Anti, taking third at the NCAA Championships. Before grabbing bronze, the Nanooks had themselves a historic regular-season, going 12-0, 4-0 PRC in head-to-head matchups and included a pair of team and national records. On Oct. 16, 2021 against Ohio State, the Nanooks fired a program record 4734 to beat the Buckeyes. They'd go on to break it again on Oct. 30, 2021 at The Citadel (4737) and again on Nov. 14, 2021 at Navy. This time, they broke the national record with a 4749. Alongside the aggregate record, the 'Nooks also fired the smallbore record with a 2371. They'd break it one more time on Feb. 5-6, 2022 at the PRC Championships - they fired a 4752 and took the PRC Championship home for the second time and first since 2014-15. Anti was named the 2021-22 CRCA Coach of the Year in just his second season with the 'Nooks.Â
He oversaw five CRCA All-Americans in 2021-22 while also coaching Kissell to the CRCA Shooter of the Year honor and Sára Karasová to the CRCA Rookie of the Year award.Â
In Anti's third season, 2022-23, the Nanooks climbed the ranks and put themselves in the history books with their 11th National Championship and first since 2008. Alaska posted an 11-0, 6-0 PRC record in the regular-season and saw them fire a new program record aggregate score of 4753 on Nov. 2, 2022 at The Citadel. The Nanooks hosted the 2023 PRC Championships and took second with a 4749 aggregate and prepared for the 2023 NCAA Championships. There the Nanooks grabbed a trio of NCAA Championships. They earned Gold in smallbore on day one with a score of 2349 - Gavin Barnick and Rylan Kissell represented the 'Nooks in the individual finals and took eighth and sixth, respectively. On day two in air rifle, the Nanooks grabbed another discipline Gold and the overall national championship trophy with their 4729 aggregate score. Rylan Kissell earned the Individual National Championship in air after shooting the first-ever 600 in team scoring and Rachael Charles took home bronze in the individual finals.
Following Anti's third season, four Nanook student-athletes were named CRCA All-Americans and the entire team was named CRCA Scholastic All-Americans. Kissell earned the CRCA Most Valubale Shooter alongside the All-American honors.
Anti joined the Nanooks after a one-year stint as the head coach and manager of the Paralympic program with USA Shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Anti was responsible for managing and coaching the USA Shooting Paralympic program.
While Anti was with USA Shooting, his duties included coaching of technical aspects of Paralympic shooting in rifle and pistol, as well as physical and mental training, and creating a high-performance strategic plan. In addition, Anti oversaw all evaluating, recruiting and developing athletics for domestic and international Paralympic competitions. Prior to kicking off his coaching career in 2019, Anti boasts a decorated career as a rifle athlete. A four-year member of the West Virginia University Mountaineers, Anti is a two-time team national champion (2016, 2017), a two-time team national runner-up (2018, 2019) and a four-time Great America Rifle Conference (GARC) champion. He was a part of a historic run for the WVU Mountaineers who did not lose in 55-consecutive regular-season matches during his time in Morgantown, W.V.Â
Anti graduated from West Virginia in the spring of 2019 with bachelor degrees in finance and accounting.
Outside of a career with WVU, Anti was a member of the National Junior Team and was a Junior Olympic champion with Team USA.
Anti comes from a long lineage of rifle nobility, as his father, Mike, is a four-time Olympian and 2004 Olympic silver medalist in Three-Position Rifle, and is currently the head coach at the Naval Academy.
