As a member of the Morehead State rifle team, Alexa Potts likes to be sharp on the firing range.

When she stows her guns, though, Potts is as adept with a flat as she is with a sharp – as part of the MSU Flute Choir.

Potts has a musical background that pre-dates her shooting days. Potts and twin sister Karly were nudged by their father to take up shooting when they were high school freshmen.

The twins, encouraged by parents Dan and Amy, were introduced to musical instruments at about 9.

They learned basics on the piano and, about six months later, were given the opportunity to select another instrument as part of a fourth-grade program in their hometown of Ephrata, Pa.

"I thought I was going to play the trumpet," Alexa said. "That didn't go over well. But I picked up the flute and was off to a slow start. I was doing lessons by myself because I couldn't get a sound out of the instrument when everybody else was doing really well. But (my teacher) was working with me one-on-one. From there, it just picked up and I moved along really quickly, and was soon auditioning for different bands."

Karly, also a member of the MSU rifle team, has since dropped musical pursuits in favor of drawing, which Alexa says "she's really good at."

Alexa continued to excel on flute through her high school years, landing a spot in the multi-school District Band. One high school band director in particular, Scott Fairchild, was "instrumental" in encouraging and helping her.

Her musical talent came about with hard work, the practice and effort needed to learn a difficult piece. Similar to commitments necessary to become an ace shooter.

Just as shooters have strong suits – perhaps being better in small bore rather than air rifle, or shooting in the prone position as opposed to standing – musicians can have particular strengths.

"I think I'm pretty good at sight-reading music – seeing music for the first time and being able to read it pretty well," Alexa said. "I actually have played piano longer than flute, so I think that's helped me with that ability over from the piano to the flute."

She doesn't have a particular favorite piece, but prefers playing classical style on flute. But it was not music that led the Potts twins to MSU. Foremost was an ability to shoot.

Alexa recently completed her sophomore season with averages of 582 in air rifle and 564.75 in smallbore.

As a freshman, those numbers were at 577.3 (air rifle) and 567.2 (small bore). She earned second-team All-Ohio Valley Conference in smallbore and was named to the OVC All-Newcomer team in both guns.

Just as happened after her freshman year, Alexa has been selected to compete in air rifle at the National Junior Olympics, April 13-19, at Colorado Springs, Colo. Other Eagles selected for that competition include Karly, Jesse Moyer and Ryan Hinson.

Another attraction to MSU for Alexa was academics. Along with Karly, she is in the MSU Honors Program.

Alexa has a double major in History and Legal Studies, with a minor in Spanish. Law school could be in the future.

So how did a sharp-shooting academician – who also is involved in Athletes In Action "and a few other organizations like that" – come to be a part of the MSU Flute Choir?

"Maybe a month into school, freshman year, I went down to the music building. I'm not a music major or anything, but I just asked them if there were any organizations I could get involved with in order to keep playing once I was in college," Alexa said. "I was actually talking to the person that was in charge of the Flute Ensemble at that time, or Flute Choir as they like to call it. She said 'yeah, we meet once a week if you'd be interested in joining us.' Everybody in there is a flute-performance or music-education major, which I'm not at all. But it's been a really cool experience to keep doing something I've been doing for 10 years."

What do the music majors think of this flutist?

"I think they think it's kind of funny because, for them, it's a required 300-level class, I think, that they have to be in this flute studio," Alexa said. "They don't really know why I'd want to be in there putting in this extra work. But, for me, it's something that's been a part of my life for 10 years. I knew that if I didn't get involved somehow that I would start to lose those abilities and years of practice, and I didn't want that to happen."

Meanwhile, she continues to striving to improve her gun game.

In addition to hours on the shooting range, Alexa spends time breaking down the psychological and mental aspects of the sport.

Following Karly's lead, Alexa has started working with noted sports psychologist Raymond Prior, who works out of Chicago.

Alexa has completed the first of five sessions with Prior, via Skype. The sessions last 1½ to 2 hours each and, between meetings, Prior and Alexa will exchange emails about what to work on and how she has been applying her new knowledge to competitions.

"Already I've seen some different changes in the way I've been approaching the mental side and what I'm thinking about during matches, which I think is going to take me a far way," she said.

Such mental aspects of shooting translate into similar challenges in music, Alexa says.

"As far as 'I have a big match coming up and I'm really nervous for it; I don't know if I can take this next shot.' It's the same thing auditioning for a piece of music," she said.

"You're not sure if you can hit that note, but you've done it hundreds of times before.

"So I do see correlations. Again, sometimes I remind myself before a match, I can pick up my flute that I haven't played in a month and play a perfect scale. So if I'm able to do that, there's no reason I can't go shoot a 10, which I practice all the time. I'd say there's a lot of correlations like that, and it helps to think about it like that."

Sharp.