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NEWTOWN, Conn.
To: ALL TEXAS MEDIA For Immediate Release August 4, 2002
For more information contact: Paul
Erhardt or (203) 426-1320
Johnson County 4-H and Alpine
Range clean up in San Antonio.
Lonnie Mears and John Kearley know how to coach. They also
know how to shoot. Put those two skills together and what do you get? Four
national titles in the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP).
Mears and Kearley and their Burleson, Texas, teams
captured the national title in the Junior and Senior Experienced divisions
for both skeet and sporting clays. The Johnson County 4-H squad won in
sporting clays and the Alpine Range team won in skeet.
"We've said that if the other teams are going to beat us - they better
come to shoot," said Mears who also serves as the Texas state sporting
clays director for SCTP.
Teams from Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado and
other parts of Texas did come to shoot. But not like the Burleson boys who
walked away champions and with $1,000 scholarship each.
Members of the national championship junior experienced
sporting clays team are Bubba Wilkerson of Wylie, Joseph Rogers of North
Richland Hills, Rob Wallace of Cleburne, Jacob Callahan of Colleyville and
Dakota Holder of Grandview.
The Johnson County 4-H squad captured the championship
with an impressive team score of 617 out of a possible total of 1,000.
Callahan lead the team with a 161 which also earned the young shooter High
Overall honors for the division. The boys from Texas beat out teams from
Illinois and Colorado to take the title.
Winners of the national championship in the senior
experienced sporting clays event were Jake Montgomery, Tanner Gilreath,
Mark Billings, Jon Wheat and Travis Mears. All five boys are from
Burleson.
The Johnson County 4-H squad captured the championship
with an impressive team score of 878 out of a possible total of 1,000.
Mears, Wheat and Billings topped all shooters with scores of 186, 185 and
179 respectively. The boys beat out teams from Texas, Illinois and
Virginia to take the title. |
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In the skeet competition, the Alpine junior experienced
national championship team members are Bubba Wilkerson of Wylie, Joseph
Rogers of North Richland Hills, Jacob Callahan of Colleyville and Dakota
Holder of Grandview (all four winners in the sporting clays event) and
Alex Dugan also of Grandview. The team shot a 776 out of a possible 1,000.
The national championship team members in the skeet senior
experienced category include four members of the senior sporting clays
team, Montgomery, Billings, Wheat and Mears and John Hubbard also of
Burleson. The team broke a staggering 968 targets out of a possible 1,000.
"They made us proud today," beamed Mears. "They worked as a team and
helped each other. It was a real pleasure to watch them."
The Scholastic Clay Target Program provides junior and
senior high school-age young adults with the opportunity to showcase their
competitive shooting skills and earn state and national recognition. The
program is designed to instill in participants safe firearms handling,
commitment, responsibility, leadership and teamwork.
The Scholastic Clay Target Program is a cooperative effort
between the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms
industry's largest and most diverse trade association with 2,200 members,
and the governing bodies for trapshooting, skeetshooting and sporting
clays shooting - the Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA), the National
Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) and the National Sporting Clays
Association (NSCA), respectively.
"Our boys have practiced and showed real dedication to the
sport and they have learned to read targets," explains Mears. Reading
targets and understanding how, when and where to break them is a skill
that takes a great deal of time to develop and one that escapes most
shooters.
But that his teams have accomplished so much is no
surprise to Mears. "All the boys on the senior teams are National Honor
Society members and are going to appreciate those scholarships," said
Mears.
For more information on the Scholastic Clay Target
Program, visit www.nssf.org/SCTP
or
Contact the National Shooting Sports Foundation at
(203) 426-1320 |
