For three days (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), my Son's High School Clay Target Team competed for the state title. The team competed in Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays. Our team took 2nd for the past 2 years and frankly they were getting tired of that post. Some of the kids that shot decent all year stepped up and rocked it while others who are studs stalled a bit. When it was all said and done the team took the title!
Last year was my Son's first year. He shot a 62 in Sporting Clay. This year he shot a 90! Last year he shot in the high 40's low 50'for trap and sheet. This year he shot 84 and 86.
It wasn't without heart ache. His best friend Kyle lost his mom a coupe weeks ago. Kyle is one of the best shooters in the state if not country. He squaded with Max for all the shoots. While Kyle shot well he didn't shoot like he normally does. His mom was on his mind.
Here Max talking him through it.
All things got better when the trophies were presented. Here they are with the goods. The team took 1st in Sporting Clay, 3rd in Trap and we lost 3rd in Skeet because we were in a shoot out for it and one of the leaders on our team took off early. We were down a man for it and lost birds. We took 1st overall.
Max was able to meet Vincent Hancock - who won 2 gold medals in 2 Olympics and will shoot in Rio. He actually lives abut 20 minutes from us.
Below is Max with Sean MacClenndon who also shot in the Olympics. He has shot with Max and will coach him some in the fall.
The course was touch. Strange thing is that Trap is easiest but our team doesn't do as well compared to Skeet and Sporting Clays. They do real well with sporting clays. They stations were tough this year. They had Midis mixed in and many refs didn't call any dusting. Effected everyone. He saw each of these flights in his show pair. Some were ridiculous but he used great choke selection and kept his cadence and stance in check. Highest score was a 96 / 100. He shot a 90 / 100. He was tracking for a 95 which would have had him second in the state till the last station. He only dropped 5 till the last. The last station had 5 report pairs with the first being a rabbit which skipped stupid. The report clay was going away and was a Midi and if you got up early on the rabbit it was a swing to the right. Not intuitive because of the angle the rabbit took. If you waited, the rabbit might or might not skip. It was a beast. He dropped all the rabbits but got the Midis. Even with show pairs and tracking who shot before you, you combine the 104 F temps, 100% RH, shooting 200 clays the day before and just shot 90...misses at that level are mental.
Even so, he did fantastic and I could not be more proud of him. How he shot, how he was with his friend...it was very emotional but I wouldn't let him see the tear.