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Tag: allen eagles

Allen Eagles Competitive Shooting Team wins 6th straight Texas State Championship

While thousands gathered for the NRA annual convention in Dallas on May 4-6 to pontificate about firearms, about 300 sixth through twelfth graders comprising two dozen youth shotgun teams convened at Ellis County Sportsman’s Club just 20 miles away for the Scholastic Clay Target Program’s 2018 Texas State Shotgun Championships. “Ellis County is one of the few venues in North Texas that can handle a tournament this size,” noted Coach Rich Keele. “For anything bigger, we pretty much have to use the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio.”

More than 70,000 targets and 3,000 boxes of shotgun ammo decided individual, squad, and team state champions in American Skeet, American Trap, and Sporting Clays. According to longtime supporter Bill Alford whose son shot on the first national champion squad for the Eagles, “The growth of youth shotgun sports is incredible. You know it’s grown when parents and coaches get frustrated because all the shoots fill up on the first day of registration.”

Hundreds of medals, trophies, and belt buckles were awarded to athletes in grades 6-12 competing in their respective classifications. For most, this was the pinnacle of their season having battled the elements throughout the 6-month league which started back in November. Many will compete in the Lower Midwest Regional Tournament in San Antonio June 16-17 along with athletes from OK, AR, and LA.  A few will go on to represent Texas at the SCTP American Team Nationals July 18-22 in Marengo, OH versus 3,000+ shooting athletes from across the nation. Among the Eagles who have already qualified for the All-State-Team representing Texas at Nationals are Rob Beach (Trap), Trevor Christensen (Skeet), Sean Packer (Sporting Clays), and Grant Stelmach (Sporting Clays). Beach and Packer also qualified as All-Americans in Sporting Clays, while Morgan Scott and Brandon Stone qualified as All-Americans in Skeet.

The Allen Eagles Competitive Shooting Team won the High Overall Team Championship by a margin of 42 targets out of 1,500 over the Southlake Carroll Target Program who earlier this year placed 1st in the North Texas League by 29 targets over the Eagles out of 4,500 shot in 9 league events.

Also in the running for the HOA team state crown, 1 target separated 3rd place Red Oak High School Shotgun Team from 4th place Grace Cougars of Tyler with newcomer Keller High School Clay Target Team in 5th place by just 4 more targets.

Allen and Southlake tied for the Skeet team award. But, Allen got the win in a shootoff with Southlake veterans Nicholas Godfrey and Tyler Hall demonstrating exceptional sportsmanship. The Eagles took the Sporting Clays team award by 3 targets over the Dragons. And Pleasant Grove Shotgun Club bested Allen by 1 target out of 500 for the Trap Team Championship.

The level of competition just keeps getting tougher. Every year, there are more and better teams competing. “Every year, we graduate a bunch of great shooters and fool ourselves into thinking we’ve seen the best of the best. But each year, a new crop of young shooters step up to the plate and raise the bar,” noted Eagles head coach Jason Anderson. “We just reload.”

Allen had a host of individual and squad award winners too!

SKEET
Team: GOLD-Trevor Christensen, Morgan Scott, Nick Welch
Varsity Squad: BRONZE-Morgan Scott, Robert Beach, Sean Packer
Varsity Lady: GOLD-Morgan Scott, BRONZE-Bailey Finnelly
JV Squad: Trenton Christensen, Meredith McCarty, Garrett Koch
Intermediate/Advanced Squad: SILVER-Owen Lyons, Riley Showah, Brandon Martin
Intermediate/Advanced Athlete: GOLD-Owen Lyons
Intermediate/Entry Squad: GOLD-Nick Welch, Dylan Little, Tyler Stelmach
Intermediate/Entry Athlete: GOLD-Nick Welch, SILVER-Dylan Little

TRAP
Team: SILVER-Robert Beach, Bailey Finnelly, Sean Packer, Morgan Scott, Kaleb Carper
Varsity Squad: GOLD-Robert Beach, Bailey Finnelly, Morgan Scott, Jackson Harper, Jake Lundberg
& SILVER-Sean Packer, Kaleb Carper, Thomas Keele, John Lyons, Grant Stelmach
Varsity Lady: SILVER-Bailey Finnelly, BRONZE-Morgan Scott
JV Squad: SILVER-Ellie Moeller, Oliver Harrison, Presli Richmond, Hunter Rhodes, Joseph Showah
JV Lady: BRONZE-Ellie Moeller
Intermediate/Entry Squad: GOLD-Dylan Little, Nick Welch, Tyler Stelmach, Brett Windham, Luc Tomczak & SILVER-Austin Hodge, Alex Martin, Connor Bowles, Alex Bull, Samantha Gott & BRONZE-Hudson Cooper, Logan Martinez
Intermediate/Entry Athlete: BRONZE-Hudson Cooper
Intermediate/Entry Lady: BRONZE-Samantha Gott

SPORTING CLAYS
Team: GOLD-Sean Packer, Grant Stelmach, Thomas Keele
Varsity Squad: GOLD-Sean Packer, Grant Stelmach, Thomas Keele
Intermediate/Advanced Squad: SILVER-Owen Lyons, Brandon Martin, Riley Showah
Intermediate/Advanced Athlete: GOLD-Owen Lyons
Intermediate/Entry Squad: GOLD-Nick Welch, Dylan Little, Tyler Stelmach & BRONZE-Austin Hodge, Brett Windham, Luc Tomczak
Intermediate/Entry Athlete: SILVER-Nick Welch

HIGH OVER ALL

H.O.A. Team: GOLD-Allen

Skeet: Trevor Christensen, Morgan Scott, Nick Welch, Grant Stelmach, Sean Packer

Sporting Clays: Sean Packer, Grant Stelmach, Thomas Keele, Kaleb Carper, Nick Welch

Trap: Robert Beach, Bailey Finnelly, Sean Packer, Morgan Scott, Kaleb Carper

H.O.A. Varsity Athlete: BRONZE-Sean Packer
H.O.A. Varsity Lady: SILVER-Morgan Scott, BRONZE-Bailey Finnelly
H.O.A. Intermediate/Advanced Athlete: GOLD-Owen Lyons
H.O.A. Intermediate/Entry Athlete: SILVER-Nick Welch, BRONZE-Dylan Little
H.O.A. Intermediate/Entry Lady: BRONZE-Samantha Gott

SCTP Team Helps Give Back

IT TAKES A VILLAGE…

By Morgan Scott, Allen Eagles Competitive Shooting Team (Allen, TX)

Philosophically, all men may be created equal. And in reality, it certainly starts out that way. After all, we’re all born helpless and need food and shelter. Our parents provided that for most of us and if you’re reading this, your parents probably go way beyond the basics for you such as providing guns, ammo, shooting lessons, travel, and education. But not everyone has parents and not all parents are able to go above and beyond the way that mine and yours do.

We’ve all heard the pitch about starving kids in Africa before. And, yes. We’re all thankful. But, it didn’t really hit home for me until my SCTP Coach Jason Anderson took some of us to South Africa last fall to see wild game and visit an orphanage. The game ranch we stayed at, HuntSA.com, was fascinating. They rolled out the red carpet for us.

Seeing Africa and the fauna and flora first hand is nothing at all like watching it on TV. Our guide, Etienne, bent over backwards to show us around and taught us many things. We enjoyed a “braai vleis” or South African barbecue. Tried biltong (pronounced bull tongue) which is their version of jerky. We played with the pet warthog named “Bacon,” chased springhaas at night. And, we even saw lions up close in the wild from an open vehicle. (Fortunately, they were more interested in stalking an impala.) It was all part of our African experience and we participated in everything. Well… almost everything. Coach Anderson kind of chickened out of the dung spitting contest. But hey, I figured… when in Rome!

I even got to stalk and harvest an impala! It was nothing at all like sitting in a deer blind. We hiked, tracked, and stalked for miles and miles over rocky, hilly, rough terrain. Several times we were close, but the wind shifted, and they bolted. But, we persisted with determination… like hunting down that second shot on station 4 skeet doubles on a windy day.

But Rufus Luttig, not only owns a game ranch, he uses the proceeds and meat to feed and fund a program called Village South Africa (villagesouthafrica.com) whose primary purpose is to support the Jehova Jireh Haven Orphanage near Alexandria in the Eastern Cape. Visiting the orphanage was pretty much the highlight of our trip. It was truly an eye opener to meet the kids and hear the stories about the struggles they had endured before being taken in and given food, shelter, and education. Many had lived on the streets having to fend for themselves. They had to be taught that dogs and goats weren’t just your next meal. They could be kept as pets. ..that goats could provide milk and chickens could be kept around to lay eggs.

Most of all, these were not faces on a late-night TV commercial. They were (ARE) real people with names and heartbeats. Who were born just as equal as you and I. But, didn’t get the same kind of support growing up as you and I. But fortunately for them, there are people such as Rufus Luttig at HuntSA.com and Molly and Neels Bam who opened up their home to start the orphanage over 15 years ago.

Prior to our trip, we began collecting donations of supplies and such at our school and at one of our Texas SCTP tournaments and I’m proud to say that our shooting community is very generous. The kids at the orphanage were amazingly overjoyed when we brought them a couple of 100-pound suitcases full of school supplies and a truck load of meat from the ranch. You would have thought that they had each been given a Perazzi or Krieghoff shotgun for Christmas.

We were so moved by the experience that when we settled back in at home we got to thinking about what more we could do? We all benefit from assistance from others. Look at how many volunteers it takes to run SCTP. Think about how much the Potterfields and MidwayUSA Foundation have given to us. So, we had the idea of getting Texas SCTP to “adopt” and start sponsoring the orphanage. Thanks to all of the volunteers, our shoots barely cost more than the targets anyways. So, at our Easter League Shoot we collected a few extra dollars and donations. It all adds up and by the end of the weekend, we had raised another $3,500 for Village South Africa!

They were so very appreciative of the donations and asked that we thank everyone from SCTP for their support. It’s such a great feeling to give back that I wanted to share our experience and challenge every SCTP League or Team to do something this year to raise a little money for Village South Africa or for any other charity. It’s a great feeling that you’ll never forget. I can honestly say that it’s just as rewarding as standing on the podium at nationals with a gold medal or making the All-American team. Neither of which I would have ever accomplished without lots of help from others.

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