In 2023, Smith & Wesson announced it would be moving its headquarters from its longtime location in Massachusetts to a new manufacturing facility in Maryville, Tenn. One of the latest expansions at S&W's new Maryville facility is the addition of an entirely new training ground, the new home of the legendary Smith & Wesson Academy. Watch our "American Rifleman Television" feature segment above to see the details of this new training school.
"The Smith & Wesson Academy has just been a staple, you know, for decades. You know, in Springfield, Mass., you know, back in the days when, you know, 80, 85, 90 percent of law enforcement officers carried the Model 10," Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith said. "It was kind of a, you know, a rite of passage for law enforcement officers to come to the Mecca, to Smith & Wesson, to learn from the factory experts who knew everything about that firearm, how to shoot and how to care for the gun. And when we shut that down back in the early 2000s, you know, I was here and kind of a little bit sad. It was kind of an end of an era."
Smith & Wesson's establishment of a new manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters in Tennessee brought with it a new opportunity, as the location in Maryville provided room for the company to grow and expand in more ways than just gunmaking.
"With our new facility here in Tennessee and, you know, the opportunity to bring a guy like Mark in, when that opportunity presented itself, it was just kind of a no-brainer," Smith said. "Like, let's get back that iconic aspect of the Smith & Wesson brand experience."
Heading up the new academy is retired Navy SEAL Mark T. "Coach" Cochiolo, who comes to the academy with 37 years of naval special warfare experience. Cochiolo served four SEAL tours, as well as eight years in the Navy's elite counterterrorism unit, CNSWDG (Gold Squadron), with deployments across Iraq, Afghanistan, eastern Europe, Kosovo and Bosnia. Following his military career, Cochiolo then spent 13 years training thousands of SEAL candidates in firearm-handling and marksmanship.
"You got to have the right person for it, right? You got to have the person that's passionate about teaching people, that can bridge the gap between the military side and the civilian side, right? You know, like, if I want my wife to come take a class, she's not going to be dropping and doing PT when she misses the target," Smith & Wesson Product Manager Corey Beaudreau said. "That's not what we're trying to do here. And I'd met Mark Cochiolo through a friend and spent an hour with him at the range, and his passion for training, his ability to even help someone like me with carbine and acquiring, finessing my skills was amazing. I'd never met someone who could train the way he did."
In his time as a BUDS instructor, Cochiolo also co-wrote the curriculum that is still used to train Navy SEAL candidates in firearms handling, and he took that base of instruction and used it to develop training courses that are currently offered through the Smith & Wesson Academy.
"I was a SEAL for 25 years. I spent eight years on [a] tier-one unit, and my last three years of active duty, I was the third phase training officer at Basic Underwater Demolition Seal training, BUDS," said Mark "Coach" Cochiolo, director of the Smith & Wesson Training Academy. "I spent the next 13 years as a contract BUDS instructor. So still going out to San Clemente Island, you know, teaching guys and you know, between 2008 and 2023, I put about 4,000 guys through training. Right? So I learned how to teach people how to shoot."
Currently, the academy offers training courses for rifles and pistols, starting from a fundamental level, and it continues to develop the curriculum, with more advanced firearm-handling courses planned for the future.
"Our motto is 'Empowering Americans.' And, you know, there's nothing more empowering than being comfortable and being proficient with your firearm," Smith said. "And so for the law-enforcement officers, for sure, but also for, you know, for the average consumer, you know, whatever skill set, whether it's your first time picking up a gun or you've been shooting competitions, you know, there's always something you can learn."
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/videos/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
