In the season-opening episode, we chat with a familiar voice, John Linquist to discuss new SSSF and MidwayUSA Foundation initiatives that begin growing your team's funding future immediately, each season. We are also joined by a SCTP athlete whose team is hard at work, preparing for next month's College Nationals.
In this episode, we recap the various records broken at the 2021 National Championships, review USA Shooting at the Olympics, and get the perspective of a Nationals volunteer who previously did not have any experience in team-based youth shooting sports.
Each year in July, thousands of youth shooting sports athletes converge at the Cardinal Shooting Center for their National Championship. To support the monumental ten-day event, team coaches, adult volunteers, family members, sponsors, program staff, vendors, and others all do their part to ensure each youth shooting team's Nationals experience is unforgettable. Affected by an abbreviated close to last year's season, the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) and Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) both saw the prestigious National Championships come roaring back, with teams from 33 different states setting all-time records for attendance. A new bar has been set and the outlook for youth shooting sports is looking brighter than ever.
On the front end of Nationals were the international events of Bunker Trap, International Skeet, Air Pistol, Air Rifle, and Sport Pistol. As the Official Youth Feeder Programs for USA Shooting, the SCTP and SASP provide many opportunities for competition and development for athletes chasing their Olympic dreams. The American sports of Action Shooting, Skeet, Trap, and Sporting Clays followed with a 10-day event schedule.
Just over 2,700 SCTP athletes competed in their respective clay target sports, totaling 7,658 entries. These participation numbers clearly solidified 2021 as the largest SCTP National Championship to date. To put this into perspective, over 1.4 million White Flyer clay targets were thrown at the 2021 National Championship events with an additional 357,000 targets thrown during sponsor demos, shoot offs, last competitor standing, practice, and side games. That is 10 semi-tractor loads, stretching beyond the length of a football field!
On the pistol and rifle side, the SASP opened up with international events with the 2020-2021 season being the first to offer the international disciplines of 10 Meter Air Rifle, 10 Meter Air Pistol, and Sport Pistol. The expansion of shooting disciplines offered by the SASP realizes the SSSF's mission to serve as a feeder/pipeline for organized, sanctioned shooting organizations and teams. 2021 saw SASP's record for the largest action shooting event in the world definitively set for the third consecutive year. Over 700 participants competed in a staggering 2,000 entries where well over 320,000 rounds were fired in competition and over 180,000 additional rounds were fired at sponsor side matches, demos, and practice bays. To accommodate this spike in participation, the Cardinal Shooting Center expanded its action shooting facilities from eight to a total of twelve shooting bays in anticipation of another world record event taking place.
After the final shots were fired at the 2021 National Championships, it would not only set program records but it would also go down as the largest shoot in the history of the Cardinal Shooting Center. Youth shooting sports bounced back from 2020 and we look forward to the new season in August.
Although the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics did not allow in-person spectators, the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) and Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) had a lot to cheer about. Program alumnus, current athletes, and staff were among the incredible lineup of USA Olympic shooting athletes on the big stage in Tokyo. These representatives of Team USA and USA Shooting competed in their particular disciplines of International Skeet, Bunker Trap, 10 Meter Air Pistol, and 10 Meter Air Rifle. These sports are also practiced in the respective team-based youth shooting sports programs of the SCTP and SASP. With 3 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals, and 1 Bronze for USA in Tokyo 2020 Olympic shooting events, let's take a look a deeper look at each:
The 20-year old air rifle athlete from Colorado Springs headed to the final on July 25th after placing 3rd in the qualifier earlier in the day. His sixty shots scored for a 630.8, just 1.9 points behind the #1 qualifying athlete. William went on to set a new Olympic Record in the Finals, with his 24 shots scoring a 251.6 to edge out China's Lihao Sheng by 0.7 points. The University of Kentucky student previously won Gold at the 2021 ISSF World Cup in Croatia and as part of the Men's air rifle team at the 2021 ISSF World Cup in New Delhi.
1st Lt. Amber English of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, is also a Colorado Springs native. Growing up in a shooting family, Amber began shooting at the age of six. Program representatives recall that 1st Lt. English attended early Scholastic Clay Target Program training camp events on her way to her destiny of becoming an Olympic Gold athlete. On day 1 and 2 of the Women's Skeet Qualification, Amber put up impressive scores before heading to the final on July 26th. There, she set a new Olympic Record of 56 targets, dethroning 2016 Olympic champion Diana Bacosi.
Vincent Hancock, an athlete alumnus of the Scholastic Clay Target Program set a new Olympic Record of 59 targets and became the first Olympic athlete to have won three gold medals in skeet. Hancock attended the very first SCTP training camp on his way to becoming an Olympic athlete. In 2005, at age of 16, Hancock won his first World Championship title in Men's Skeet and went on to win the prestigious International Shooting Sport Federation's Shooter of the Year award.
Hancock's shooting career continued on a path to Olympic gold after participation in the SCTP youth shooting sports program. At the age of 20, Hancock won the Gold Medal in the World Championships in 2009 and continued on to serve in the Army's coveted Marksmanship Unit.
As a proud alumnus, Hancock has conducted training clinics for SCTP members and made appearances at National Championship events to meet and support the next generation of young athletes. His Gold medal victory in Tokyo provided a clean sweep for USA in the Skeet events after Amber English's respective Gold medal performance earlier that day.
Kayle Browning began her journey in sporting clays where she made the open All-American Team at just 12 years old. The following year, she attended a Junior Olympic Development Camp where she became focused on bunker trap when she realized it was a sport at the Olympics. In 2007, won the bronze medal in the National Junior Olympic Championships. Her performance in Tokyo secured a Silver medal for the US, breaking just one target less than the event leader from Slovakia.
In response to International events being held on the front end of Nationals, Kayle attended the 2020 SCTP National Championship to provide coaching for youth athletes focused on Bunker Trap. Kayle covered the National Championship in her podcast, Beyond The Podium. Listen to the episode here: Beyond The Podium: SCTP Nationals
Madelyn or "Maddy" Bernau began her path to becoming an Olympian when she joined the Waterford Wolverine Shooting Team, participating in the Scholastic Clay Target Program. In the Spring of 2014, Maddy attended an SCTP development camp as a team member on the SCTP International Team, held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The camp was designed to introduce young SCTP athletes into the Olympic disciplines of shotgun sports by subject matter experts, including team coach, Olympic trapshooting medalist Terri DeWitt.
"We try to provide a structure and open doors for all our athletes," said Tom Wondrash, SCTP National Director. "Maddy has walked through that door and climbed to a new level. She's setting an outstanding example of where our kids can go."
Madelyn's Bronze medal came after a heartbreaking qualification round of Women's Trap, missing the cutoff by one clay behind her USA teammate, Kayle Browning. For the Mixed Team event, Bernau was one of only two shooters to break all 75 targets. Alongside Team USA and event teammate, Brian Burrows, a shootoff against Slovakia came down to a dropped target that opened up the opportunity for Maddy. A brief moment of performing her pre-shot routine was all she needed to execute, breaking the next target and securing Bronze for the US.
After placing 6th in their respective 10 Meter Air Rifle events, Mary Tucker and Lucas Kozeniesky competed in the Mixed Team event on July 27th. With both US mixed teams making it to the second stage of qualification, Mary and Lucas went on to the final with a score of 418, outshooting the ROC for Silver.
The Scholastic Action Shooting Program’s own Director of Development for International Disciplines, James Hall represented Team USA in the 10 Meter Air Pistol and Mixed Team events. Hall’s journey to the Olympic stage began at Jacksonville State University, where he was a four-time All American, Team Captain, and USA National Rifle Team Member. Hall secured the first U.S. quota spot in air pistol for the Olympics in Tokyo with his Gold medal at the 2018 Championship of the Americas. James was just one point from making the 10 Meter Air Pistol final and shot more x’s than all but two athletes in the qualifier. Hall placed 10th in the mixed team event alongside teammate Sandra Uptagrafft.
As the official youth feeder program for USA Shooting, Hall quickly established and continues to expand the SASP’s new international disciplines of 10 Meter Air Rifle, 10 Meter Air Pistol, and Sport Pistol.
Scholastic Action Shooting Program athletes, Jackson Leverett and Henry Leverett are sophomores of the Ohio State University Pistol Team. Prior to joining the pistol team at Ohio, Leveretts set four USA Shooting national records in junior men’s Rapid Fire and junior men’s Sport Pistol. Henry won the U.S. Olympic Rapid Fire quota spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after placing 5th in the 2019 World Cup Bejing, while Jackson helped Team USA win gold medals in Air Pistol and Rapid Fire in the 2018 Championship of the Americas. As current SASP athletes, both Jackson and Henry are SSSF College All Americans, having secured their spots on the 1st teams for international air, sport, and standard pistol. Henry and Jackson Leverett placed 22nd and 25th in the 2nd qualification stage, respectively.
Iowa is considered by many to be one of the premier white-tailed deer hunting destinations in the United States. Dreams come true in the Hawkeye State every year as hunters consistently harvest mature, corn fed bucks that reach well over 200". Getting a tag, however, is easier said than done. Now you can guarantee your tag and promote state and local conservation efforts through the Iowa Scholastic Clay Target Program Non-Resident Deer Tag Auction, in partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).
This auction is for One Iowa Special Non-Resident Deer Tag, good Statewide for Archery, Gun season one, Gun season two, or the Late Muzzleloader season during either 2021 or 2022 Iowa deer season (hunter's choice). The deer tag includes 1 'any sex' deer and 1 'antlerless' deer. For seasons and hunting information, go to: http://www.iowadnr.gov/
This Iowa tag is currently open for pre-registration and preview. The auction will begin on July 31st at 12:00PM CST and ends on Friday, August 13 at 12:00PM CST.
The winner of the auction receives a tag that includes 1 any-sex deer and 1 antlerless deer. This non-resident deer tag is good statewide; however, Landowner Permission is required before hunting on private land. The winner of the auction is required to purchase an Iowa nonresident hunting license and pay the non-resident habitat fee.
The tag may be used either in the coming 2021-2022 season, or next year in the 2022-2023 season. The hunter must declare which year and one of the following standard seasons at the close of the auction and no later than September 25th, 2021.
2021-2022 season dates can be found at https://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Deer-Hunting. 2022-2023 dates have not been confirmed at this time but will be similar to 2021-2022 dates.
We are just over a week away from the 2021 National Championships! In this episode, we give a sneak peek at Nationals and discuss the coach training programs available from the SSSF.
With registrations set to break new records for both the Scholastic Clay Target Program and Scholastic Action Shooting Program, we are excited to release the 2021 National Championship Program. See you at the Cardinal Center!
With very heavy hearts we write this tribute to Jack Fishburn. The world has lost a great man. As the owner of the Cardinal Shooting Center, Jack Fishburn supported the Scholastic Clay Target Program and Scholastic Action Shooting Program like no other.
He was very instrumental in making sure our programs had a place we could call “home”. From the additions of the action shooting bays, to the grand project of the new skeet and bunker fields, Jack wanted to keep building it and growing the youth involvement.
We will miss him tremendously but his legacy will live on in the Cardinal Shooting Center that Jack built. Nationals is confirmed to be the biggest year yet for both programs and we know Jack would be proud.
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The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to providing shooting-sports education and opportunities to school-age youths around the United States to encourage young athlete personal growth and development.
Tax-ID number 20-8484121.