2007 Youth Program
STATE SCTP CHAMPIONS

Each spring the club offers a Youth League program thanks to the board and members giving their full support, both in volunteering to raise money and coaching. Since 2001, Hamilton Trap Club has focused on the future of the shooting sports, our kids.

Our program not only offered shooting but gave the kids a chance to learn sportsmanship, team building skills, firearm safety and a sport for life. HTC strives to keep the program costs affordable to everyone with the club subsidizing the majority of the program.

Not everyone can be a coach...especially when it involves kids. This year the club was very lucky to have Ray "Shadow" McBride and Jason Wallis volunteer to meet the challenge! Both also volunteered to take their personal time to become NRA Certified Instructors by attending a weekend training in Billings this spring. This certification is now being required by the Scholastic Clay Target Program in order for kids to participate at the state shoot and the coaches will have to continue their education yearly to maintain their credentials.

This year`s 10-week league had twenty seven youth participating each Sunday and many parents also joined in to assist. Each week started with a classroom experience and then plenty of actual shooting. To help raise money for the program & the state shoot some great prizes were donated for a raffle and the kids and parents sold tickets raising a total of $2,602!

HTC KIDS TAKE STATE SCTP CHAMPIONSHIP

Missoula was the sight for the 113th Montana State Trap Shoot tournament and thanks to our coaches and members, twenty kids of the HTC Youth Program were able to participate in the Scholastic Clay Target Program.

The kids shot in teams based on their age which gave us one Varsity team, two Jr. Varsity teams and one Intermediate team. Our teams competed with teams from all over Montana with our Varsity team taking the 2007 State SCTP Championship!

Each team had to compete by shooting 100-16yd targets on Saturday and another 100 on Sunday for a combined two-day team score. The weekend was filled with many "highs & lows" to the competition including getting up before dawn, extreme heat, and a shooting background very different from ours but all had fun, practiced what they had learned at league and did their home club proud.

The Varsity team comprised of Mike "Gus" McBride, Troy Hewitt Jr., Fritz Robinson, Dustin Weidenkeller and Ryan Bogdon finished the competition with a 874 x 1000 targets to take the championship by five targets!