SSSF News and Information Archives - Page 71 of 93 - SSSF - Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation

SPP / NRA Hold First Pistol Camp and Level 1 Coaches’ Class

Written by SSSF Staff on August 14, 2015. Posted in SPP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Illinois State Rifle Association in Bonfield, Illinois hosted the first SPP/NRA athlete pistol camp and Level 1 coaches' certification on August 7-9. Eight athletes participated in the camp and six SPP coaches were certified as NRA Level 1 pistol coaches. Daniel Subia, NRA National Trainer, Rifle and Pistol, and Bill Perkins, SPP Regional Field Representative from Arizona, conducted the class for the coach certification. Rick Leach, Wisconsin State Advisor and head coach for the Ozaukee Scholastic Shooting team, as well as John Leach, assistant coach for the Ozaukee Scholastic Shooting team, and Tammy Mowry, Program Manager for the Scholastic Pistol Program, conducted all of the range time instruction for the campers. SPP extends its thanks to Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) for the invitation to host this year's camp and to all the ISRA range safety officers for their support during the weekend. SPP and NRA are planning a second camp in Arizona in December.

The camp was a wonderful success. Not only did the campers have a great time, they made new friends from across the country. We hope the camp continues to grow both in size and locations. The camp is a great place to spend some time learning new skills and making new friends." --Daniel Subia, NRA National Trainer, Rifle and Pistol

The SSP/NRA Pistol Camp was one of the safest, best organized, and well-run camps I have ever been involved with. The Illinois State Rifle Association is looking forward to hosting the camp again next year." --Richard A. Pearson, Executive Director, Illinois State Rifle Association

Larry and Brenda Potterfield Donate Nearly $100,000 to Youth Shooting Sports

Written by SSSF Staff on August 14, 2015. Posted in SCTP Blog, SPP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Larry and Brenda Potterfield, owners of MidwayUSA, recently donated $99,077 to the MidwayUSA Foundation to benefit youth shooting sports. This donation stems from the matching program offered by the MidwayUSA Foundation. Donors have the ability to choose the shooting team that will benefit from their donation, and Larry and Brenda Potterfield match that donation.
Larry and Brenda Potterfield at the 2014 SCTP-SPP National Team Championships
Along with the matching program, the MidwayUSA Foundation offers its active teams promotional items to use as fundraisers. At this time, teams can register to receive a Winchester Model 70 Super Grade rifle, as well as Browning Butcher Kits to raise funds for their shooting team. Larry and Brenda Potterfield also match proceeds generated from these promotions and returned to a team’s respective endowment account. The MidwayUSA Foundation is a public charity working to sustain the shooting sports industry by providing long-term funding to youth shooting teams. Shooting teams with a Team Endowment Account can draw 5% of their account balance each year to use for team expenses. The funds are used for ammunition, uniforms, entry fees, travel costs and more. For more information about the MidwayUSA Foundation, Inc., please visit www.midwayusafoundation.org or call 877-375-4570.

Wright Earns Junior National Team Invite at SCTP Internationals

Written by SSSF Staff on August 7, 2015. Posted in SCTP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program recently completed its National Championships for International Disciplines at USA Shooting’s International Shooting Park near Colorado Springs, Colorado. In all, 147 athletes from 46 teams in 21 states competed in the International event, registering for a combined 239 events, a record for the tournament. International Skeet National Champion Trey Wright (Brookline Top Shots/Albany, Georgia) earned special distinction for his win by being invited to be a part of USA Shooting’s National Junior Team. The other two event winners including Hank Garvey (Minute Man Sharpshooters/Newburyport, Massachusetts) in Double Trap and Dustin McGowen (Arkansas Raze Shotgun Team/Greenwood, Arkansas) in Trap already have team status, with Garvey a member on the Junior Team and McGowen a National Team member. Colton Evans (Bridge Creek Clays/Crawford, Georgia) and Katie Jacob (Lake Oconee Shotgun Team/Rochester, Michigan) joined Wright on the Skeet podium. Jesse Haynes-Lewis (Minute Man Sharpshooters/) and William Faeth (Midland University Shotgun Team/) joined Garvey on the Double Trap podium. Two shooters from CTC-Tennessee in Spring Hill earned podium honors alongside McGowen in Trap, including Grant Porter and Caleb Lindsey. The five-day tournament was capped off with an awards ceremony and dinner at the beautiful Cheyenne Mountain Resort. As is traditional, a Shamrock Leathers shooting bag was given to an athlete through random drawing during the banquet. Speakers included Mike Theimer, youth program director for USA Shooting; Myles Walker, newly appointed member to the USA National Team and last year's USA Junior National Team appointee via the SCTP Nationals; Hank Garvey, Jr., last year's SCTP double trap gold medalist and Junior National Team appointee via the SCTP Nationals, and Lloyd Woodhouse, former USA national shotgun coach during six Olympic games. See all the scores and winners. Next year’s SCTP National Championships for International Disciplines are scheduled for July 24–30, 2016. Special thanks to USA Shooting for event reporting and photography.

SPP Teams Earn Endowment Funds in Virtual Match Series

Written by SSSF Staff on July 31, 2015. Posted in SPP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Congratulations to Scholastic Pistol Program teams who have submitted entries into the 2015 Virtual Match Series and been drawn as winners of team endowment funds. Recent winners of $1,000 contributions to their endowment accounts are:
Straight Shooters Tucson - April Michigan State Shooting Sports Club - May Crew 401 - June
Each month through December, SPP will hold a random drawing among teams who submit SPP Virtual Match scores that month. Winners receive a $1,000 team endowment account contribution. Don’t forget to submit your team's scores into the virtual match series. All you need to do is send your scoresheets and $1.25 per athlete (via USPS) to Tammy Mowry. Learn more.

Kolar Raffle Winner and Team Endowment Recipients

Written by SSSF Staff on July 24, 2015. Posted in SCTP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Congratulations to Jerry Baumann of Traverse City, Michigan, who was drawn as winner of a Kolar Max over/under shotgun during the 2015 National Team Championships in Sparta. Mr. Baumann's name was drawn and announced on July 17 during the Last Competitor Standing competition, and SCTP National Director Tom Wondrash was able to reach the lucky winner by phone while the crowd watched. The raffle drawing culminated a fundraising program that earned money and endowment contributions for teams who sold the raffle tickets, as well as funds for SCTP. The top 5 ticket-selling teams also received bonus endowment awards for their MidwayUSA Foundation accounts as follows:
$5,000 - Burlington High School – 679 tickets $4,000 - Beloit Izaak Walton – 432 tickets $3,000 - Shooting Tigers – 378 tickets $1,500 - tie - Hillsdale College - 300 tickets $1,500 - tie - River Falls - 300 tickets
Thank you to our sponsor, Kolar, for their generous donation of the shotgun, and kudos to teams who padded their endowment accounts by selling the raffle tickets.

Winners, and More Winners

Written by SSSF Staff on July 24, 2015. Posted in SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

There was almost no end to the opportunities for competitors to win valuable prizes at the 2015 National Team Championships. In addition to the main event champions, here are some of the side event winners who took home prizes: Coaches Shoot
Marty Moore, Southern Shooting Sports - Ranger Falcon Shooting Glasses Tony Kennedy, Southern Shooting Sports - Americase Gun Case Chad Edison, Brookline Top Shots - Shamrock Leather Bag
Make-a-Break
Andy Opp - Shamrock leather bag Dawson Poor - 3 Cases of ammo Chandler Bryant - 2 Cases of ammo Zach Metz - 2 Cases of ammo
Beretta Skeet Doubles Event
Hunter Rowland - Beretta A400 Excel Sporting Mason Schroeder - Vest package Michael Johnson - Vest package

Young Women Make Up 18.4% Of Athletes At Nationals

Written by SSSF Staff on July 18, 2015. Posted in Events, SCTP Blog, SPP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

A 2013 research report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation entitled Analysis of Sport Shooting Participation in the U.S. 2008-2012 found that not only were new shooters likely to be younger with 66% falling in the 18-to-34-year-old age group, but they were also likely to be female. NSSF’s findings showed that 37% of new target shooters were women. Looking around the grounds of the World Shooting & Recreational Complex in Sparta, Illinois, it’s clear that young women are a fast growing segment of both the Scholastic Clay Target Program and the Scholastic Pistol Program. At this year’s National Team Championships those young ladies with shotguns slung over their shoulders, and those with a pistol tucked away in their range bag, make up 18.4% of the total 2,800-plus athletes in attendance. Among the 2,466 shotgunners they are 17.6% while on the pistol ranges they account for nearly a quarter (24.3%) of the 345 competitors. If the broad smiles exhibited during Wednesday night’s Opening Ceremony are any indication, the number of young female athletes participating in the shooting programs of the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation is likely to grow.

Trap, It’s A Family Thing

Written by SSSF Staff on July 18, 2015. Posted in Events, SCTP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Carter Kramer only started shooting trap this past October. But the 12 year old from Quincy, Illinois, was already an active hunter. And while he hunted duck, dove and rabbit whenever the opportunity arose, he has fallen hard for those small orange clay disks. “I love it because it’s a challenge,” said Carter about his foray into trap. And it’s a challenge the young shooter continues to rise to. Though very new to trap he has already logged his first 25 straight, and yesterday, armed with a Remington 870 Wingmaster, Carter added another 87 targets to his career total when he and the rest of his Quivering Clays team shot their first 100 of the SCTP American Trap Team Championship. Though his first 50 still alludes him, Carter is determined to reach that next trap milestone and move on to his first 100 straight this year. Young athletes like Carter don’t get into trapshooting, and all the way to Sparta, Illinois, and the National Team Championships, without some family support. And for the Kramer family, it’s not just some support but a lot. Carter’s father Dan started shooting clay targets at the age of 9 using an old spring loaded hand trap and is happy to see his oldest son getting into the sport. Younger brother Austin, 10, is ready to join Carter on the shooting line next year while 5 year old brother Kayden is still a couple years away from joining the Kramer squad. The Kramers road tripped south to Sparta in force. Joining dad and the boys are mom, granddad and, of course, grandma Donna Lohmeyer who helps herd the boys when Carter isn’t shooting and the sights and sounds of a bustling national championship venue seem to pull them in every direction all at once. Clearly trapshooting is, indeed, a family event.

There’s No Stopping Stu

Written by SSSF Staff on July 18, 2015. Posted in Events, SCTP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Stu Wright is a man on a mission, and that mission is his 32 athletes here competing in the 2015 National Team Championships. Nothing is going to keep him from watching them take a run at the title…not even Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Stu is the head coach of the Pinckneyville Community High School shooting program. The owner of Wright’s, a gun shop he opened in the mid 70’s which caters to the clay target shooter, started his high school coaching career back in 2002 when he was asked to coach the school’s FFA squad. At the time there were just five shooters, enough for a competition squad. Today his program has 32 solid shooters competing in trap, skeet and sporting clays. Here at Nationals he has six seniors who have been with him from between four and seven years, and missing their final run at a national title isn’t something that he’s going to miss. On Thursday, the first day he could get out of bed after chemo, Stu made it to the World Shooting & Recreational Complex to watch his kids compete in sporting clays. He showed up not knowing where they stood or if they even had a chance at a title. When he found out how they were shooting, well, as Stu put it, “there’s no getting me out of here.” Led by senior Andy Opp, who was the only high school team shooter to post a perfect 100 on Wednesday and followed that up with 95 on Thursday to claim the individual High Overall title, PCHS Shooting Sports finished as the first place high school team, with 562, and second place among all teams. That made Thursday a very good day in Stu's book. Five months ago, back on February 6, Stu Wright learned he had cancer. On February 10 Andy and the rest of his team, the coaches and parents got the news, too. “It was rough getting the news but then everybody stepped up,” said Opp in describing how the close knit group took the news. Up until last year Stu Wright was the coach of the team, carrying most all of the responsibility with help from assistant coach Donny Nehring who coached the sporting clays shooters and traveled with the team to major events. But last year there were 22 team shooters and this year there are 32, a big jump for a community of just 2,500. Stu realized he needed help and built a team of assistant coaches for this season. “Now I have four fine guys that picked up the torch,” says Wright. And picking up the torch is exactly what was needed since February. Chemo takes a lot out of a person, even one with the drive and enthusiasm that Stu Wright seems to have an endless supply of. On those days, the bad days as Wright refers to them, he refuses to be around the kids because he doesn’t want his cancer to be their burden. Wright’s motto is ‘Fun With A Gun’ and that’s why he won’t get in the way of his kids’ fun with his cancer. Opp describes his coach as "one of a kind" and says, “Nobody’s going to be like Stu. He’s strict but fun and we always seem to be laughing.” Going into today’s American Trap finals, Stu’s kids, the boys from that small, tight community of Pinckneyville, Illinois, are ahead by 34 targets after breaking a 482 in their quest for the high school team title, making Coach Wright a very happy man. With no hope of hiding his pride in their first day’s performance Stu gushes, “That’s totally over our head.” And then he says of his cancer and recent round of chemo, “I have no side effects. I’m on top of the world and it doesn’t get any better than this.” And that's why there's no stopping Stu Wright.

Amber Rasmussen, Ironwoman

Written by SSSF Staff on July 18, 2015. Posted in Events, SCTP Blog, SPP Blog, SSSF News and Information, Uncategorized.

Amber Rasmussen shoots a lot, something like 200 rounds a week during the season and about 5,000 rounds annually. She competes on the Union Grove Broncos Shooting Club team, out of Union Grove, Wisconsin, where her father, Wayne, is an assistant coach. She started out shooting trap in 8th grade, picked up sporting clays and skeet her sophomore year and added handicap and doubles trap her junior year. In her freshman year she also found time to shoot pistol. This past spring Amber graduated and is headed to Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she plans to study physical therapy. This made her final round of trap at the National Team Championships a bit tough. “I started crying before my last round and by the time I was done I was a mess,” said the 18 year old describing her last day shooting in the Scholastic Clay Target Program with her high school team. While her Union Grove career came to an end, for Amber it most certainly did not go gentle into that good night as Dylan Thomas might note. No, Amber went out with a bang – over 1,000 of them the be specific. Amber, along with her fellow Union Grove teammate Michael Kopecki, are members of a small group here at the nationals that compete in every championship event. She took on sporting clays, skeet, trap, doubles trap and handicap trap shooting 200 targets in each. In doubles trap she finished 3rd Ladies Varsity in individual competition helping her team take 4th place. She also shot 100 rounds in the Scholastic Pistol Program event. And, she even faced off in Friday night’s Last Competitor Standing shoot were, facing off against several hundred shooters, she managed to win a $1,000 scholarship courtesy of the NRA. At the end of a long, hot week of competition, Amber was thankful her Union Grove team shot as much as it did through the year. But as for the reason for shooting so many events Amber pulls no punches, declaring emphatically, "Because I can."