 Karen
Monez:Precision Cowgirl and Mentor By Susan Laws, Karen Monez is a high-tech Annie Oakley who is as comfortable with a 125-year-old Winchester '73 lever0action rifle as she is with a streamlined Anschutz precision smallbore with aluminum stock and cantable grip. She is a genuine cowgirl, an inspiring coach and a legendary shooting champion in a wide variety of disciplines. She is also as gracious and humble as she is talented-a perfect role model for the young women now in her charge. Karen is currently in her fifth year as coach of the Texas Christian University (TCU) Women's Rifle Team in Fort Worth, Texas. Under her tutelage, the team has gone from literal obscurity to top NCAA contender. It took only three years for Coach Monez to lead the fledgling squad, not just into the top 20, or even the top 10, but into a tie for fifth place ranking in the nation. I knew her when! I met Karen ten years ago at a Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) venue near Fort Worth. Because CAS requires participants to use shooting aliases, I knew her only as Squaw Creek Rose, her cowgirl persona. She was new to the sport at that point, but it took little time for her to master both the game and the replica firearms of the late 1800s. From the start, she looked very comfortable in cowboy hat and boots. (I later discovered that she spent much time with her significant other, John Chapman, raising quarter horses and cattle on his large ranch in Parker County.)
If I had been quicker on the "research" draw in those early days, I would not have been surprised at Squaw Creek Rose's shooting prowess. In the real world, the name Karen Monez was already stuff of legend. For starters, she was selected by Shooting Sports magazine as one of the fifty greatest shooters of the Twentieth Century and appeared solo on the cover of the American Rifleman in October of 1987. That honor was a result of her accomplishments at Camp Perry in smallbore rifle (three-position and prone) competition. Over the years, Karen competed in nineteen foreign countries including the 1979 World Championships in Seoul, Korea, where she won her first gold medal. In 1990 she won gold at the World Cup in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, for Women's Standard Rifle Position and in 1992 won gold again for Women's Standard Rifle Prone. At one point in her career, she held two world records, a list of national records, and a whole host of assorted championship titles.
The proud coach gave my husband Jim and I a lesson in modern shooting technology and a first-hand look at the hi-tech range and equipment she manages so diligently. Neither of us was familiar with those amazing, ergonomic, precision shooting instruments built by Feinwerkbau, Anschutz, Walther and the like. They are still called "rifles" but a very long way from anything Annie Oakley ever dreamed of. The shooting team competes with both air rifles and smallbore rifles. Team members are generally adept at both. Unlike most NCAA sports, shooting is coed, and the TCU team is one of the few that is all women. Coach Monez likes that arrangement. "In this sport, women are often more receptive to coaching than men," she says. "The guys have often grown up around guns and hunting so they feel they already know how to shoot. That confidence doesn't always translate into good precision shooting skills where concentration is paramount."
What ultimately led me to call Karen for a chat at this particular moment in time, was not the news surrounding her rifle team, but a recent news story about the first European Cowboy Action Championships in Brescia, Italy in 2008. The story included pictures of the winners and there in the middle of it all, was Squaw Creek Rose! She placed first in her cowgirl class and third over-all for the entire field of men and women CAS shooters. The Single Action Shooting Society (New Mexico-based governing body for Cowboy Action Shooting) sanctioned the inaugural event, dubbing it the European End of Trail. Local Italian organizers were pleased to host 123 shooters from Italy, France, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Finland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, and the USA. Sponsors for the event include F.lli Pietta and Armi Chiappa; who donated guns and other prizes.
All was eventually resolved and Karen went on to the winner's circle. She also inspired a brand new CAS shooter in her non-shooting niece, Flaminia, who had been living in Italy for four years. The young woman, a graduate of the University of Texas, was just along for the ride but ended up shooting the match herself. Locals dressed her in cowgirl duds and from the first shot, she was hooked. I asked the venerable competitor, Monez about CAS shooting vs. Olympic-style events. "I'm an accuracy shooter-a precision shooter," she says. "Cowboy Action Shooting, with its large, close targets, is entirely different and requires speed more than accuracy. For me, that is the challenge and that's what makes it fun." By way of history, Karen (a California native) joined the
U.S. Army Reserves in 1975, was on active duty from 1977 to 1980,
then returned to the reserves until 2000. She was on the To say that Karen Monez has a competitive nature is a monumental understatement. She has nurtured that characteristic in herself, just as she cultivates and inspires it in her students. "There has never been a time when I wasn't involved in shooting sports" she says. "It has defined my life." When I left Karen at her TCU office on the day of this interview, I left with renewed respect and heightened appreciation for this outstanding woman. Her past accomplishments speak for themselves. But what strikes me as even more special, is the fact that she continues to reinvent her passion for shooting. Even as she is fully immersed in coaching the TCU Women's Rifle Team and completely devoted to bringing out the personal best in these young competitors, she winks and says in parting, "I still like to pull the trigger!"
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Over the next few years, Squaw Creek Rose became a
force to be reckoned with in the CAS arena. She excelled with
all three types of pre-1900 firearms required: lever-action-rifle,
single-action revolver and period shotgun. She won nearly every
local match in her first two years in the game. In 2000, she
ventured out to the National Finals at Ben Avery Range in Phoenix,
where the petite cowgirl quietly made her mark with a surprise
victory. She has been winning ever since, including three World
Championship titles at the Single Action Shooting Society's prestigious
"End of Trail" annual match. 
Monez can be described as one of the rare, recent-era
shooters who excel at different disciplines. When I reconnected
with her last month, it was clear once again, that she had taken
on yet another new challenge far removed from the cowgirl world,
this time as coach and mentor to young, female precision rifle
shooters. We met at Karen's office on the campus of TCU, in a
small building shared with the ROTC. It was a pleasure to spend
time with her once again and it was obvious the years had not
diminished her enthusiasm for shooting sports.
In 2007, the TCU squad made its first ever appearance
in the NCAA championships and has quickly become one of the nation's
best rifle programs. In a very short time, Karen Monez has established
herself as one of the top coaches in the country. In addition
to her recruiting and coaching duties, she is currently serving
a 4-year term as the only female member of the NCAA Men's and
Women's Rifle Committee. Meanwhile, back at the ranch!
Karen Monez (as Squaw Creek Rose) made the trip to
Italy to have fun and enjoy the scenery. But make no mistake;
she enters every shooting event with the intention of winning.
This time there were plenty of unforeseen obstacles, including
a short stint in the Venice police department while authorities
determined what to do about the American cowgirl and the guns
she was transporting.
U.S.
Army Reserves Shooting Team for 22 years. She competed in the
U. S. International Shooting Championships for 24 years and the
National Rifle Championships for 19 years. 
