SCHEELS, Red Diamond Sponsor of the SCTP has continued their support for the 2020 season.
"SCHEELS is proud to partner with SCTP as we both share a strong commitment to grow the interest in shooting sports among student-athletes in a positive and safe environment," said Marcus Thornton, Chief Marketing Officer.
"We are thrilled and fortunate to have renewed support from SCHEELS this season," exclaimed SCTP National Director, Tom Wondrash. It is fantastic to see a household name such as SCHEELS enthusiastically support our youth shooting sports program year after year. Many of our families shop at SCHEELS and express their gratitude for the unwavering support."
About SCHEELS Today, SCHEELS is one of the largest sporting goods stores in America with over 115 years of retail experience to discover your passion with a superior quality of customer service and philanthropic support. Currently, SCHEELS has 28 locations in 13 states, including North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Nevada, Illinois, Utah, Kansas, Texas, and Colorado.
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 2020 or 2021 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
The auction for this tag begins on Tuesday, July 7 at 7:00PM CST and ends on Friday, July 17 at 7:00PM.
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 2020-2021 season, or next year in the 2021-2022 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, 2020. 2020-2021 season dates can be found at https://www.iowadnr.gov/Hunting/Deer-Hunting. 2021-2022 dates have not been confirmed at this time but will be similar to 2020-2021 dates.
WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS AUCTION? The Iowa Scholastic Clay Target Program, Inc. is committed to supporting organized youth, high school and collegiate clay target shooting programs across the state of Iowa. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the primary functions of Iowa SCTP, Inc. are to raise money and provide funding and financial support to Iowa programs and their coaches. With support provided by our sponsors, Iowa SCTP, Inc. and its volunteer board of directors has been able to provide funding and therefore more opportunities to new school-based teams, coaches and shooting athletes.
The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is 501(c)(3) public charity responsible for all aspects of the Scholastic Clay Target Program in Iowa and across the United States. SCTP is a youth development program in which adult coaches and other volunteers use shooting sports to teach and to demonstrate sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, ethics, integrity, teamwork, and other positive life skills.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is also Iowa’s leading state conservation agency who works hand-in-hand with the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation and the Iowa Scholastic Clay Target Program to promote youth shooting sports and wildlife conservation across the state. Their programs enhance all of Iowa’s conservation and outdoor recreation opportunities.
A literal ground-breaking announcement out of Ohio comes in the form of an initiative between the SSSF/SCTP and the Cardinal Center to further the support of International Shotgun Shooting Sports in the SCTP. Along with outstanding support from Promatic and an incredible donation from the Potterfield family for range development, work on four new Bunker fields at the Cardinal Center has been underway to accommodate this year's SCTP International-Style National Championship. Equipped with state of the art Promatic systems, these fields will allow us to support International shotgun sport opportunities for SCTP athletes like never before!
On the front end of the National Championships schedule, we will be holding the “International Style” National Championships July 9-12. Open training will take place July 7-8 with International Skeet Championships taking place July 9-10 and Bunker Trap Championships taking place July 11-12. Registration for the International Style National Championships is currently open and closes July 6th.
On or about the 22nd of June, our project partners, Promatic will be installing their advanced target throwing equipment to make these fields ready for the International Style National Championships. Without the incredible support of the Cardinal Center, Larry and Brenda Potterfield, and Promatic, this would not be possible!
“Promatic is very excited to see the SCTP support International shooting and its athletes in this manner! They are definitely making a difference and filling a pipeline of athletes for tomorrow’s Olympians,” commented Jim Moses, CEO for Promatic. “The SCTP is proof that through hard work and dedication to youth shooting, they can make a difference and offer real opportunities for our young athletes. We couldn’t be prouder to be involved!” “We are very proud to see this dream come true for the SCTP and its athletes, teams and families," said Tom Wondrash, SCTP National Director. “Promatic, The Potterfield family and the Cardinal Center staff and family are all directly involved with this exciting opportunity.
Youth shooting sports finds another huge supporter with Primary Arms Optics signing on as a Silver-Level Sponsor of the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP).
"Primary Arms is dedicated to growing the firearms community, and we are proud to support the Scholastic Action Shooting Program," says Dina Sanders, Primary Arms’ Brand Manager. "At a time where misinformation is everywhere, youth programs help grow the next generation of advocates."
"Primary Arms was eager to support SASP ahead of the National Championships this year," said Rick Leach, SASP National Director. Key support from both big industry names and newer companies alike gives our mission of youth development through shooting sports continued momentum. We have seen consistent growth in both athlete participation and sponsor support throughout our existence. The future of youth shooting sports looks bright, no matter the current circumstances!
About Primary Arms
Started in 2007, Primary Arms began as an optics manufacturer focused on delivering the absolute best performance optics for any budget. Today, Primary Arms continues that legacy, expanding to provide best-in-class service for wholesale, LE/MIL sales, and online retail. Wherever your needs lie Primary Arms wants to be your first choice and favorite partner. For more information on Primary Arms, visit the company website at www.primaryarms.com or contact:
Dina Sanders Brand Marketing Manager dsanders@primaryarms.com
We are happy to officially announce that the National Championships will take place as scheduled on July 11-18th at the Cardinal Center in Ohio. The National Championships are a tradition for many families not only to compete against the best in the nation, but also to share the sport and spend time together as a summer trip. Though this year will certainly be different, we hope that having our annual event in-person will be welcomed by the majority of our members.
This decision took careful consideration to a number of factors. This spring we kept a very close eye on how COVID-19 affected our communities and youth sports as a whole. It took time to get our bearings on the situation in a way we could confidently evaluate the logistics and safety of holding a large sporting event.
The safety of our members, staff, volunteers, partners, and spectators is our first priority. Our national staff has been carefully utilizing information from the state of Ohio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morrow County (OH) Department of Health, and representatives from the Cardinal Center. We were also lucky to have advisement from some of our members that are medical professionals who deal directly with COVID-19 in their communities. Additionally, we surveyed our coaches across both programs to get their feedback. With over 400 responses, this survey helped give us important member-driven data that helped shape our decision to host a physical National Championship event.
We as a community are fortunate to participate in non-contact sports, which makes operating this event much easier than others during this time. Although the spirit of the SCTP National Championships will still be alive, some aspects of the event may be modified to act in accordance with all safety standards put in place by the Ohio Department of Health, as well as Federal and state guidelines at the time of the event. We understand that side events and experiences are part of what makes nationals so special. Some of these traditions are scheduled to continue as planned, such as the Make A Break and Flurry Fun shoots. We have also received feedback from many of the organizations that make up vendor row. They are eager to be part of the Nationals experience and plan to be there.
Cardinal Center staff are enthusiastic to help run SCTP events and are going above and beyond to make that happen in a safe and responsible manner. While the spring of 2020 saw postponements and cancellations, the SCTP Ohio Regional will take place as planned at the Cardinal Center June 19-21. During the same weekend, the Upper Midwest Regional will kick off in Iowa.
Preparations are currently underway at the Cardinal Center on four, state of the art International Skeet and Bunker field overlays. These new additions to their grounds will allow us to host all of our SCTP Nationals under one roof in July. On or about the 22nd of June, our project partners, Promatic will be installing their advanced target throwing equipment to make these fields ready for the SCTP “International Style” National Championships, running from July 9-12. Registration for the International Style National Championships is currently open and closes July 6th.
The SCTP will also be adding a Virtual National Championship event which gives those who cannot yet travel due to local mandates or those who are uncomfortable with the thought of doing so the opportunity to compete at the national level. If the logistics of your team traveling to Ohio was previously a barrier to compete, you now have the opportunity to participate in a national championship this year. This virtual component of the SCTP Nationals consists of five events of trap and skeet and will be run in conjunction with in-person national events to give the closest representation of the Nationals experience. Registration for the Virtual National Championship begins June 3rd and closes July 6th. This virtual tournament is a separate event from the in-person nationals and will have separate prizes and awards.
The Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP) will be holding their National Championships in a virtual format over a three-week window, July 5th-July 26th. This three-week window also allows for teams who participate in both the SASP and SCTP, the ability to participate in both National Championship events and the opportunity to compete in the CZ-USA Top Gun Challenge. Athletes competing in the CZ-USA Top Gun Challenge will shoot trap, skeet, a rifle discipline of choice, and a centerfire pistol (iron, optic, or 1911), with their scores from each event being compiled to calculate the winners.
Registration for the 2020 SCTP National Championships in Ohio is currently open and available to team coaches in the SSSF’s SHOT system. Teams registering for the event will receive additional health and logistical information regarding event requirements, procedures and best practices based on the most current information available from the Ohio Department of Health and local authorities. Teams and athletes (parents) will be required to sign a waiver to compete.
Schedule of Events
July 7-8 – Open Training for International Events / Squads posted for International Skeet
July 9-10 – International Skeet
July 11-12 – International Trap (Bunker Trap)
July 11-12 – American Skeet / Trap Doubles / Trap Handicap
July 13-14 – American Skeet / Sporting Clays / Trap Doubles / Trap Handicap
July 15-16 – American Skeet / Sporting Clays / Trap Doubles / Trap Handicap / Trap Singles
July 17 – Skeet Doubles
July 17-18 – Trap Singles
Make A Break and Flurry side games will be available throughout the week starting at 11 am each day.
More detailed information about the 2020 SCTP National Championship to follow.
The SASP national staff would like to thank you very much for your patience as we carefully evaluated the possible scenarios for the 2020 SASP National Championships in July. The SASP recognizes that our athletes have lost so much this year, but in good conscience cannot hold Nationals in person at the Cardinal Center this year. Understanding the importance of a National Championship experience, we will instead proceed with a virtual match over a three-week window, July 5th-July 26th, complete with awards being sent to our winners. Registration is currently open and closes July 2nd at 12:00 PM CST.
This decision took careful consideration of a number of factors. This spring we kept a very close eye on how COVID-19 affected our communities and youth sports as a whole. It took time to get our bearings on the situation in a way we could confidently evaluate the logistics and safety of holding a large sporting event.
The safety of our members, staff, volunteers, partners and spectators is our first priority. Social distancing in our sport is extremely difficult. Our national staff has been carefully utilizing information from the Morrow County (OH) Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and representatives from the Cardinal Center. We were also lucky to have advisement from some of our members that are medical professionals who deal directly with COVID-19 in their communities. Additionally, we surveyed our coaches across both programs to get their feedback. With over 400 responses, this survey helped give us important member-driven data that helped shape our decision to proceed forward with the 2020 SASP National Championships as a virtual event.
Although we will not be able to come together for a physical match, the competitive spirit of the SASP National Championships is very much alive in virtual format. This format gives those who cannot yet travel due to local mandates or those who are uncomfortable with the thought of doing so the opportunity to compete at the national level. If the logistics of your team traveling to Ohio was previously a barrier to compete, you now have the opportunity to participate in a national championship this year. Already the largest action shooting event in the world, this gives the potential opportunity for our national championship to be bigger than ever.
This three-week window also allows for teams who participate in both the SASP and SCTP, the ability to participate in both National Championship events and the opportunity to compete in the CZ-USA Top Gun Challenge. Athletes competing in the CZ-USA Top Gun Challenge will shoot trap, skeet, a rifle discipline of choice, and a centerfire pistol (iron, optic, or 1911), with their scores from each event being compiled to calculate the winners.
Participating teams should observe their local guidelines and general best practices published by the CDC which is meant to supplement the respective local laws, rules, and regulations with which youth sports organizations must comply.
-Can be set up by coaches and open to invited teams or all teams
-Can be set for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly competitions.
-Can run up to 52 competitions in a series (if you run weekly events for the entire year)
-Uses team scoring where the top 4 athletes, regardless of classification, on your team are selected to be the team score. There are no set squads.
-When you enter your team into a league it will list all your registered athletes. You only enter scores for the athletes that shoot in a round/match. DO NOT ENTER 0.
-Each round’s/match’s top 4 athletes per team are combined for a cumulative team score at the end of the series.
-Scores you enter for each athlete are the stage scores (best 4 of 5 strings). This can be done on paper or using a tablet to record them and then entered in SHOT system (or SHOT).
-Scores are entered by the coach for everyone into the virtual scoring module in Shot. This must be done by the end of the grace period (date is listed in the match for each round/match).
-Shooting can be done on your home range or at another team’s range if they can host you for a little head-to-head action for the virtual.
-There is no fee for the virtual series matches. (If teams want to run virtual leagues of their own and do awards they can charge a fee outside of SHOT.
-The stages for the match are set by the match host. Those are the stages that must be shot.
-Disciplines to be shot will be based on the match host’s selection and listed in the match.
State and national championship virtual matches (if run):
-These matches will be run if in-person championships are not feasible due to restrictions in place because of the pandemic.
-Matches will be built in Shot by national staff and administered with the assistance of state advisers.
-Matches will be shot at your home range, or possibly at another team’s range if they can host a team, based on restrictions in place.
-This is a onetime match that will be shot over the course of a week or several weeks.
-Disciplines to be shot will be selected by the match director and provided to all teams.
-These matches will be done with traditional squadding (4 athletes in the same classification) as noted in the rulebook.
-State Matches Scores will be entered in tablets if possible and emailed to the state adviser. Paper scores can be sent if a team does not have scoring tablets.
-There will be instructions on how to set up the tablet with the PractiScore file if we do any of these matches.
Nationals virtual if held, scores will be submitted via PractiScore to back to SASP National staff. All four stages must be shot back to back just as they would be at the nationals match. They cannot be split up over multiple days.
We have created a video tutorial on how to get started in the Virtual Series within the SHOT system:
<iframe title="How to Join A SASP Virtual League" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7PEjTiUFW1U?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Steel Target Paint's Jeff Jones gives SASP athletes a tip on cutting down stage times:
Yes, it’s obvious, but it’s true. Your best runs are going to be one for one runs at your best speed. Don’t try to be someone else, they’ve got that covered, be the best you can be. This is the trick to understanding this method, you are trying to shoot your best performance. For each discipline and every stage you should know your average string time. This is going to help you understand if you where you need to be during a competition. Let’s say you’re a 2 second per string shooter and you shoot a 1.8 on your first string. You might feel confident and push harder on string 2. More often than not, you’ll do worse than 1.8. Now you’re on to string 3 and you get tentative because you want to throw out string 2, so that’s a 2.4. Do you see where this is going? Probably not the best performance. Now, if you knew 2 seconds per string was your goal, after that 1.8 you’d realize you were faster than your norm and keeping the same pace and going one for one is your best opportunity to turn in your best time.
Really? I shot it that fast?
How many times have you heard your time and went “Are you sure you didn’t miss a shot?”. Most times you best runs don’t feel fast. There are the occasional blistering runs, but in most cases, your fast runs don’t feel fast. Everything is working and that’s more than likely because you gripped the gun and went one for one!
Jeff Jones is a member of the Steel Target Paint Team 6-Division GM in Steel Challenge Co-host of the Steel Target Paint Podcast
Grow your team endowment account at the MidwayUSA Foundation via our Member Matching Program and realize 5:1 and 7:1 matching! Open to all members, this matching opportunity takes a $5 deposit into your MidwayUSA Foundation Team Endowment account and matches back $25/athlete or $35/coach or volunteer!
Some Details
Teams, (or team supporters) may donate up to $5 for every current member on the team roster. Donations are limited to one, $5 donation per registered team member. Donations should be submitted together as one submission using the forms below. Donations for athletes will be matched 5:1 and donations for volunteers will be matched 7:1. For example, a team with 5 volunteer coaches and 15 athletes makes a $100, tax-deductible donation to the SSSF as part of the member matching program:
$25 receives $175 in matching funds from SSSF (5:1 matching)
$75 receives $375 in matching funds from SSSF (7:1 matching)
$100 receives matching funds from the MidwayUSA Foundation at their current matching rate
Over $650 is deposited to your team’s endowment account for your $100 donation!
Teams must be in good standing for the 2019 – 2020 season to participate
Teams must have a team endowment account at the MidwayUSA Foundation to participate
Donations must be made directly to the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation in order to be part of this program.
Donations made to the SSSF are tax-deductible
Member Matching Program runs through August 31, 2020
Federal Ammunition has agreed to support the SCTP as a Silver Level Sponsor in 2020, according to the Federal Staff and the SCTP! Federal, makers of Top Gun ammunition, Federal Gold Medal plastic and the coveted Federal Gold Medal Grand paper shotshells realizes the importance of supporting our youth!
“Federal is happy to continue building relationships that support the next generation of (clay target) shooters engrained in our company history, mission and core values,” said Dan Compton, Shotshell Product manager for Federal Ammunition “Youth play a vital role in our future and Federal Ammunition is excited to be on the front line of support for groups like the SCTP.”
“We are extremely happy to have Federal involved in the support of our program and youth shooting!” said Tom Wondrash, SCTP National Director. “Now more than ever, we lean on the support of industry and sponsors like Federal to help us stay the course in youth development and the clay target sports. We appreciate Federal’s commitment and support of youth shooting now and for years to come!”
The SCTP/SSSF strongly recommends whenever possible that you look at supporting and buying products from companies like Federal that support the future of the shooting sports through our youth shooting programs! Check out Federal’s new offerings like the 1-ounce, 12 gauge, high-velocity loads added to the Top Gun Sporting lineup. They are specifically designed to shorten leads, yet reduce felt recoil to allow for quicker follow-up shots.
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.
