SSSF National Championship Celebrates 10 Years at Cardinal Shooting Center
The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) has grown youth shooting sports to new levels over the course of 10 years at the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio. Between the SSSF's clay target and action shooting programs, 39 states were represented at the 2025 National Championships, which saw over 2 million rounds safely fired without incident.
The SSSF's dedication to tirelessly providing shooting sports education and youth development to its athletes throughout the country is realized with a 153% growth over the course of the past decade. This strong increase in shooting sports participation year-over-year is a testament to the clear mission statement of the SSSF and the industry-wide sponsors that stand behind it.
With a decade of history at the Cardinal Center, the SSSF's National Championship has secured its reputation as the largest participated shooting sports event in the world, doing so exclusively with youth athletes.
In 2025, the foundation's Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) National Championship saw over 2,500 entries, with those athletes safely firing over 416,000 rounds of ammunition in competition without incident. Numerous opportunities of side matches, sponsor demos, and practices tallied in additional hundreds of thousands of rounds.
At the Cardinal Center's shotgun facilities, the foundation's Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) had nearly 3,000 athletes and over 14,000 event entries during the twelve-day event schedule. In order to conduct a clay target event at such a large scale, well over 2 million White Flyer targets were thrown in competition, side matches, and practice.
Shooting sports continues to be a level-playing field where winning can be achieved without being the strongest athlete or the fastest runner. Athletes come from a wide range of backgrounds and some that do not find their place in traditional ball sports often find success in shooting sports. Athletes also find enormous success in youth shooting sports, regardless of gender. The SASP's National Championships saw 32% female participation, a 1% increase from 2024's event.
A staple of additional activities at SCTP Nationals is the Last Competitor Standing or "Annie Oakley" event. This massive-scale elimination event saw over 450 clay target athletes lined up across the length of sixteen trap fields to determine who would come home with bragging rights and impressive prizes from SCTP sponsors. Enduring and persevering through fierce elimination, the men's champion, Cody Lang and the ladies champion, Madison Krumney were awarded Browning Silver shotguns and custom Shamrock Leather pouches for their achievement.
Exploding in popularity, the Make-A-Break competition was expanded to four fields, attracting nearly five-thousand participants. For the team championships, the Hunting Hill Hawkeyes retained their title as champions, once again taking home the Ray Forman trophy. On the individual side, Taylor Hilliard once again beat out the ladies and continued on against the top male to retain her title as overall champion for the second year in a row.
These youth also find the clear social benefit from the team-based environment the SSSF's two programs offer. The SASP and SCTP programs focus on team-based youth shooting sports as the catalyst for youth development into high-quality, responsible young adults. SCTP and SASP members benefit from a year-long season, with local, state, and regional events, culminating in the National Championship each July. As the largest youth shooting sports event in the world, the youth development programs hold industry-wide support, with many sponsors present on site to support the event such as GLOCK, Remington, Ruger, Winchester, Browning, Federal, Vortex Optics, Kolar, Beretta, and more.
Both programs serve as official youth feeders for the respective sports of USA Shooting. Athletes competing in the international disciplines of the SCTP and SASP often have Junior Olympic and Olympic goals in mind, with the youth feeding programs fostering those ambitions with additional opportunities. Currently over a dozen SSSF athletes and alumni represnt the USA on National or Junior National Teams. The most well known SCTP alumnus is Vincent Hancock, a now four-time Olympic Skeet Champion, four-time World Champion, 30-time ISSF medalist.
