On the morning of the last day of national championship shooting, James Fox awoke abruptly with the worst thing that could happen to a competitive high- powered rifle shooter.

"My hands were trembling," says Fox, 19, of White City. "I knew I was leading the competition heading into the last day, and I was getting nervous. But I knew I had to block that out."

When the shooting started, Fox regained his stone-like demeanor and became the first civilian in 53 years to beat the entire U.S. military in their own game and with their own gun.

Fox out-shot the best in the military and civilian ranks last month to win the National Rifle Association’s National Service Rifle Championship, the top prize in the world for shooters who fire standard .223-caliber military rifles.

He’s the first under-20 "junior" shooter to win it and the first non-military winner of the nation’s DuPont Trophy, which is awarded to the service-rifle champion annually since 1951.

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In 12 20-shot matches spread over four days, Fox led each day’s shooting and scored 2,366 points out of a possible 2,400, as well as 80 bullseyes. He beat second-place finisher, Colorado civilian Shawn McKenna, by seven points — the equivalent of a three-touchdown victory.

"I’ve competed at a national level for more than 30 years and I’ve never seen anyone as talented a shooter as James is at this age," says Nelson Shew, a 63-year-old Lebanon man and former U.S. Army champion who coaches Fox. "For those of us in the shooting industry, what he did was remarkable."

The top military finisher at the Aug. 8-12 championships at Camp Perry, Ohio, was Staff Sgt. Julia Watson from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve shooting team, based in New Mexico. Watson placed third.

For the past 52 years, the winners’ names all have been prefaced with a military rank and preceded by their branch of service as if it were an exclusive club where outsiders are never allowed.

Now the untitled listing of "James Fox" will forever stand out on the champion’s list engraved at Camp Perry — the Canton, Ohio, of shooting sports.

"Camp Perry is, basically, the Super Bowl," Fox says. "It’s the best versus the best."

Like most disciplines, the shooting sports require a combination of knowledge, talent and repetition for mastering the craft.

James and his 21-year-old brother, Ben, also a champion shooter, showed the talent and knowledge early in their careers.

Fox began shooting competitively with small-bore rifles at age 8, jumping to high-powered rifles at age 12 when he was finally big enough to handle the guns.

Early on, the boys’ maturity added an extra layer to their development.

"They were home-schooled, and I think that had a great deal to do with it," father Richard Fox says. "Their environment was calm, and their peers were adults. They relate better to adults than kids."

Fox needed every ounce of that maturity to overcome his final-day jitters at Camp Perry.

Competitors fired at targets from the prone, sitting and standing positions, and the 20-shot sequences came at low and rapid fire. Targets were at 200 yards, 300 yards and 600 yards.

Fox didn’t check his scores after the first day. After a horrific second day in windy conditions, he figured he had no reason to search for his name. "It was a train-wreck," he says.

But he peaked the leader board after the third round, discovering he was at the top with a four-point lead. His train-wreck score also was the best of everyone that day.

That peak could have been disastrous. It triggered that final-day haze that shook the steady out of his fingers and took the ice out of his veins.

His first 20 shots on that final day were standing — the worst position for nerves because there’s nothing on which to steady yourself.

"That just magnifies all the shaking," Fox says. "It would have been horrendous to shoot."

So he sat still and willed himself blank — called shooting "retarded" in range slang. The breaths eased, the chest-pounding plummeted and his hands wrapped like chiseled granite around his rifle.

"When you shoot, you have to go off routine, just muscle memory," he says.

His muscles remembered fabulously. He won the final day by three points, and took the crown. He never can win anything bigger with a service rifle.

"It’s the highest you can go in the world with that type of rifle," Fox says. "Accomplishing something no one else did makes it special."

Seeing a civilian reign supreme over the military is remarkable, given how the table is tilted toward shooters supported and trained by the government, NRA spokesman Jorge Amselle says.

"The military practice full-time and are trained with these rifles full-time. It’s their jobs," Amselle says. "It’s impressive for a civilian to compete at this level. It takes a lot of determination and will."

Fox has a 13-inch replica of the DuPont Trophy and standing offers to shoot on behalf of every branch of the U.S. military. But neither are going where Fox is headed.

"I’ll put the trophy on a pedestal, then go to college," he says.

a freshman studying marketing management and finance at Oregon State University, where he expects to wake up one with jitters on his first day of college.

"I’m a little nervous," he says. "I’ve been home-schooled, so this will be a major change for me.

"But I think I can overcome it."

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com