2020 Juniors Video
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FOREST CITY JUNIORS
2021 SCTP GEORGIA STATE CHAMPIONS
2021 Georgia State SCTP Champions – A Three-Peat!
The Forest City Juniors put on a show this weekend, and that may be an understatement. Over 500 competitors came to the Club hoping to dethrone the Champs. They all left disappointed except for the home team. The scoring system takes the Top 5 individual scores from Sporting Clays, Trap and Skeet for the overall Team Score out of 1500. The Forest City Juniors topped the podium with a score of 1,456, with the following scores:
Skeet
Dawson Williams 100
John Neely 100
James Daters 100
Ross Rambo 99
Nathan Porter 99
Sporting Clays
Rich Pazderski 99
Jake Kinlaw 97
Owen Haas 93
Dawson Williams 90
Jackson Ferland 90
Trap
Dawson Williams 99
Rich Pazderski 98
Nathan Porter 98
Elliott Cribbs 97
Owen Haas 97
Individually, Rich Pazderski finished 2nd HOA by 1 target with a weekend total of 294/300, with Dawson Williams finishing 5th with a 289 and Owen Haas 7th with a 288. Ella Whitley finished 7th in Ladies HOA with a 263. At the Collegiate Level, Mitchell Kent finished tied for 2nd with a 289 and Jake Summerford finished 7th with a 284. Gracie Whitley was Ladies Collegiate HOA runner-up with a 263.
Skeet
What you read above was not a misprint. We had three 100 straights in Skeet out of total of six for the tournament. Dawson Williams beat squadmate John Neely for 1st and 2nd in a dramatic shootoff with James Daters finishing 5th to secure all 3 of them spots on the All State Skeet Team with Ross Rambo claiming an alternate spot.
All told we had 35 shooters shoot 90 or better in Skeet across all divisions. If you want to know how stiff the competition is, Senior Captains Greyson Kennedy, Ella Whitley and Elliott Cribbs all tied for 14th place in Varsity with a trio of 98s.
Varsity Champions with a first ever in State history 300/300 were Williams, Neely and Daters.
Junior Varsity also took the top spot by led by 99s from Ross Rambo and Jackson Ferland and a 98 from Charlie Moody. Rambo took stop spot individually with Ferland 2nd and Moody 4th after tiebreakers. Gracelyn Cobb was Ladies JV champion with a 91 and Anna Loren Dekle finished 5th with an 88.
The Intermediate Advanced Squad of Jim Reynolds Morrison (94), Drake Cooper (93) and Ayden McKenzie (92) finished 4th with Ayden McKenzie claiming 1st Place in the Ladies Division.
Our Intermediate Entry Skeet squad claimed 1st Place with Lucas McKenzie (94), Marshall Kent (92) and first year shooter Mills Hollis (91). McKenzie finished 2nd individually with Kent 3rd and Hollis 5th. Newcomer Emaline Haddad finished 2nd in the Ladies Division.
Our Rookies are starting to get a reputation . . . they walked away with the Skeet competition led by Grady McKenzie (91), Wylie Adams (74) and June McKenzie (69). Grady and Wylie finished 2nd and 3rd and June won the Ladies Division followed by Bella Grace Baker in 2nd place.
Coming out of the Retirement home, our Collegiate Skeet squad of Jake Summerford (97), Douglas Williams (96) and Mitchell Kent (95) finished 4th in a Who’s Who of Georgia SCTP Legends, with Gracie Whitley claiming 1st in the Ladies Division with a 95 as well.
Sporting Clays
Head Coach Zac Guerrettaz didn’t take it easy on anyone this weekend on the North Course, where he set a very technical and demanding course. There were a few scores in the high 90s, but that was the exception, not the norm. That said, Rich Pazderski wasn’t intimidated and won the Varsity Division with an incredible score of 99 to lead the Varsity squad of Pazderski, Jake Kinlaw (97) and Owen Haas (93) to the Varsity Championship. Kinlaw’s 97 was good for 3rd Place and he and Pazderski received All State honors.
The Junior Varsity squad was led by Jackson Ferland who shot a 90 and finished in third place. Ferland combined with Pericles Lelos (82) and Abi Pazderski (81) to finish in 3rd place. Abi Pazderski as the Ladies JV Champion and teammate Gracelyn Cobb was 2nd Place with a 75.
The Intermediate Advanced squad of Miles Carson (89), Jim Reynolds Morrison (85) and Jackson Ezelle (82) were the IA Champions with Carson winning the individual title. In the no surprise category, Ayden McKenzie won the Ladies Division with a 79.
The Intermediate Entry level Champions were Marshall Kent (84), Lucas McKenzie (82) and David Butler (67), with Kent and McKenzie taking 1st and 2nd individually. Emaline Haddad took 2nd in the Ladies Division.
The Rookies took the top squad spot in Sporting Clays as well with Grady McKenzie’s 74 putting him atop the individual podium as well alongside cousin June McKenzie in 2nd with a 68 which was also good for Ladies Division champion. Jimmy Adams was the 3rd man on the championship squad and Bella Grace Baker finished 2nd in Rookies Ladies.
At The Collegiate level, Mitchell Kent finished 2nd with a 96 and Jake Summerford tied for 4th with a 92.
Trap
Our Varsity made it a clean sweep of the main 3 disciplines by also winning the trap competition in dominating fashion with a 489/500. Dawson Williams (99), Rich Pazderski (98), Nathan Porter (98), Elliott Cribbs (97) and Owen Haas (97) played a symphony on the front line. Dawson finished 5th individually.
Our Junior Varsity ladies did extremely well taking 3 of the top 5 places with Abi Pazderski in 1st, Gracelyn Cobb in 4th and Anna Loren Dekle in 5th.
Our Intermediate Advanced team won 2nd Place with Chase Buerger (91), Jackson Ezelle (89), Ayden McKenzie (88), Drake Cooper (85) and Miles Carson (82). Want to guess who won the Ladies Division? How about Ayden McKenzie!
Our Intermediate Entry team won 3rd Place with Mills Hollis (90), Luas McKenzie (83), Emaline Haddad (80), John Adams (79) and David Butler (78). Hollis finished 3rd individually and Emaline finished 1st in the Ladies Division.
Our Rookies, like our Varsity, made it a clean sweep winning the Trap Division by 58 birds with Grady McKenzie, June McKenzie, Bella Grace Baker, IV Fetterman and Wylie Adams. Grady finished 2nd individually and June and Bella Grace finished 1st and 2nd on the Ladies side.
The College “Original Gangsters” were also fun to watch, with 5 former National Champions on one field playing sweet clay-crushing music. They won the Collegiate division with a handful of great scores led by Douglas Williams (99), Mitchell Kent (88) , Colin Davis (96), Jake Summerford (94) and Gracie Whitley (94). Douglas tied for 2nd, Mitchell was 4th and Gracie was the Ladies Collegiate Champion.
Super Sporting
Super Sporting is a variation of Sporting Clays which is shot with a 5 Stand type menu (singles, report, true) on a sporting course. It’s shot as a 50 target side event at many SCTP shoots, but does not count toward the HOA championship. Zac and Chip set up a 100 foot lift by the dove tower and so the 3 shots at that station were the dove tower coming over head and then 2 70+ yard targets off the big tower. It was a “separator station” from Hell.
At the Collegiate level, Gracie Whitely (37) finished 2nd in the Ladies Division and Douglas Williams (45) tied for 4th.
At the Junior Varsity level, Jackson Ferland (43) tied for 2nd, Abi Pazderski finished 3rd in Ladies with Anna Loren Dekle in 5th.
IA Shooter Jackson Ezelle shot an incredible 47 to tie for the lead and lost by 1 in the tiebreaker (scorecard settle, not shootoff). Jackson led the IA team to 2nd Place along with Miles Carson (40) and Jim Reynolds Morrison (38). Ayden McKenzie is just greedy hitting a Grand Slam to win all 4 events she entered in the Ladies IA division.
The Intermediate-Entry team led by Individual Champion David Butler (41) claimed 1st Place along with Lucas McKenzie who tied or 3rd (40) and Marshall Kent (35). Teammate Emaline Haddad claimed the Ladies Division with a 34.
The Rookies completed their own Squad Grand Slam of 4 State Championships for the weekend led by Runner-up Grady McKenzie and Lady Champion June McKenzie (with a Grand Slam of her own) and IV Fetterman.
Those are your winners, and if you made it this far, you see there are a lot of them. Our coaching staff has done an amazing job this season leading these 70 kids to the top – we truly are training Champions every week. We also couldn’t do it without the support of all these great families, and if you happen to come by to see the Rookies chasing the College Kids on Dexter Elliott’s lawn Sunday afternoon, you’d know that we are not just a team, we are a family.
A couple of other highlights for me was when one of our Rookies who shot a 22 on the Sporting Clays course grinning from ear to ear and yelling “Thanks for signing me up for this Mr. Summerford!” He and another Rookie teammate shot a 6 and a 10 in Skeet at the Regional tournament six weeks ago, but care to guess what their Skeet scores were Sunday? How about a pair of 62s!!! You know what those boys are? Champions.
FOREST CITY JUNIORS
2021 SCTP SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CHAMPIONS
Over 600 shooters and several thousand of their supporters came to Forest City last weekend for the SCTP South Regional Championship, the largest youth shooting event ever held in the State of Georgia. After over 200,000 shots were fired, your Forest City Juniors came out on top as the Champions for the third year in a row!
The Championship is determined based on the Top 5 shooters in the three disciplines of Skeet, Sporting Clays and Trap. Out of a total possible score of 1500, the Forest City Juniors broke 1436 to beat our friendly arch-rival Central Georgia Elite Shooters by 8 targets and the Etowah Valley Mambas by 15. Every shot counts at these tournaments.
Our winning scores were:
Skeet
Nathan Porter 99
Jackson Schaaf 99
Dawson Williams 98
Drake Cooper 97
John Neely 96
Sporting Clays
Jackson Schaaf 96
Rich Pazderski 95
Dawson Williams 94
John Neely 94
Owen Haas 89
Trap
Rich Pazderski 97
Jake Kinlaw 96
Andrew Nicholson 96
Dawson Williams 95
Nathan Porter 95
Jackson Schaaf led all individual shooters in the High Over All department shooting an impressive 289/300 narrowly edging out teammates Rich Pazderski (288) and Dawson Williams (287). Collegiate shooter and longtime Junior stalwart Douglas Williams was the Collegiate HOA with a total score of 291.
The winning wasn’t just at the top, it started with the Rookies who made a clean sweep taking the 1st Place Trophies in all 3 disciplines of Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays. The Rookies were led by Grady McKenzie who placed 2nd in Sporting Clays, 3rd place in Trap and 2nd place in Skeet with a 91, and he’s only 11 years old. His cousin June McKenzie placed 2nd in the Rookie Ladies division in all three disciplines and first year shooter Bella Grace Baker finished 3rd in all three. We start ‘em young at Forest City, boys and girls!
In the Intermediate-Entry division, we won 1st in both Sporting Clays and Skeet with the squad of Lucas McKenzie, Marshall Kent and David Butler. Lucas and David tied for 1st place in Skeet with a pair of 91s. The trio also won the Super Sporting Competition where Lucas McKenzie finished 3rd with a 44/50.
Intermediate-Advanced was dominated on the Ladies side by Ayden McKenzie who is no stranger to the podium. Ayden shot a 93 to win Skeet and a 38 to win Super Sporting and then took second in Trap and Sporting Clays. Two other Intermediate-Advanced standouts were Drake Cooper and Andrew Nicholson. Cooper’s 97 in Skeet was one of our Top 5 scores that went toward the Championship and good for 2nd Place and Nicholson who had a career weekend posting a 96 in Trap that contributed to our overall Championship and was also good for 2nd in their division. Andrew’s 96 led our IA team to 1st Place in Trap along with Miles Carson (91), Jim Reynolds Morrison (90), Sam Anderson (89) and Chase Buerger (89). Our IAs also dominated Skeet winning 1st Place with Drake’s 97, Jack McKenzie’s 95 and Andrew Nicholson’s 94.
At Junior Varsity, Abi Pazderski had a great weekend winning the Trap competition with a 91 and finishing 2nd in Sporting Clays with an 81. Newcomer Gracelyn Cobb finished 3rd in Super Sporting with a 39.
At the Varsity level, our top shooters shined as seen above in the overall scores. Our skeet won 1st place with a combined 296/300 from Nathan Porter (99), Jackson Schaaf (99) and Dawson Williams (98) with Porter and Schaaf’s 99s tying them for 1st Overall. All-in-all, 13 of our 18 varsity shooters posted skeet scores in the 90s.
Our Varsity also dominated Sporting Clays led by the 1st place team of Schaaf (96), Pazderski (95), Williams (94) and Neely (94). Schaaf’s 96 was good for 2nd place. Ella Whitley shot an 87 to claim 2nd place in the Ladies Varsity division. We also claimed 2nd Place in Super Sporting led by Owen Haas who finished 3rd with a 49/50 along with Rich Pazderski (48) and Walker Brooks (47).
We had four Collegiate shooters who represented well led by Douglas Williams who won Sporting Clays with a 97, finished 2nd in Trap with a 96, 3rd in Skeet with a 98, and 2nd in Super Sporting with a 48. His Georgia Southern teammate Gracie Whitley did some work on the Ladies side winning Skeet (95) and Super Sporting (44) and 2nd in Trap and Sporting Clays.
It was a great weekend with 5 of the Top 6 teams from last year’s National Championship tournament in attendance, and we had 70 great young shooters defending our home turf and letting them know in no uncertain terms that the defending National Champs aren’t resting on their laurels. We also had our coaching staff of over 20 of your members out there trapping and scoring and supporting all weekend long – they are truly the backbone of this program.
We capped the weekend off with awards and a hat shooting ceremony which was a first time event for many of our younger shooters. In fact, one of the highlights of the eekend from me was a text I got from a parent of a new young shooter. He said “he had a blast! He shot 6 out of 100 and had a great attitude throughout.” They all start somewhere, and our goals are to teach them safety, how to hit targets and how to compete. If you made it out to the Club you would have seen it was crawling with people, but you won’t hear on the news how 600 kids shot over 300 times apiece without a single unsafe incident.
Thanks again to all of our coaches, shooters, parents and sponsors, and thanks to the Members of this Club and the Board for all the support.
FOREST CITY JUNIORS
2020 NATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONS
1,900 youth shooters from 31 states converged on the Cardinal Center in Marengo, Ohio, for the 2020 Scholastic Clay Target Program National Team Championships. 41 local shooters from 4th grade through College attended representing the Forest City Juniors. After four long days of shooting, the Savannah team stood alone as the top team in the Nation winning its first ever National Championship after finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the last three years!
The HOA Team National Championship consists of the Top Squad of 3 shooters in both Skeet and Sporting Clays and the Top Squad of 5 Trap Shooters. Each shooter shoots 200 per discipline, so the highest possible total is 2,200. After Skeet and Sporting Clays, the Juniors were tied with the Etowah Valley Mambas of North Georgia, 1 target ahead of Midwest powerhouse Central Falcons of Illinois, and 5 targets ahead of their friendly archrival Central Georgia Elite Shooters of Macon. When the dust settled on Saturday, the Forest Juniors finished with a total score of 2,093 for the week which was 5 targets ahead of the Central Falcons and 7 targets ahead of Central Georgia Elite. As you can see, every target counts at this level of competition. Two other Georgia teams rounded out the top 5 with the Etowah Valley team in 4th and two-time defending National Champion Lake Oconee Shotgun Team in 5th.
The shooters for the Forest City winning squads were:
Skeet: Jake Summerford 198/200, John Neely 196 and Walker McDonald 195
Sporting Clays: John Neely 184, Dawson Williams 181 and Jackson Schaaf 174
Trap: Walker McDonald 195, Jackson Schaaf 194, Rich Pazderski 193, Jake Summerford 192 and Dawson Williams 191
In addition to the High Over All National Championship, the Juniors won 17 other National squad and individual championships.
Collegiate HOA and Sporting Clays: Douglas Williams
Collegiate Ladies Skeet: Gracie Whitley
Collegiate Squad Sporting Clays and Doubles Skeet: Colin Davis, Gracie Whitley, and Douglas Williams
Intermediate-Advanced Ladies Doubles Skeet: Abi Pazderski
Intermediate-Advanced Sporting Clays: Drake Cooper
Intermediate-Advanced Squad Sporting Clays: Drake Cooper, Jackson Ezelle and Abi Pazderski
Intermediate-Entry Ladies Skeet, Doubles Skeet and Sporting Clays: Ayden McKenzie
Intermediate-Entry Squad Doubles Skeet: Jim Reynolds Morrison, Jack McKenzie and Sam Anderson
Rookie Squad Champions in Skeet, Doubles Skeet and Sporting Clays: Lucas McKenzie, Grady McKenzie and Marshall Kent
Rookie Ladies Doubles Skeet: June McKenzie
Rookie Double Skeet: Lucas McKenzie
At the Varsity level, 7 of the Top 25 shooters in the Nation wear the red and green Forest City vests:
3rd Walker McDonald 574/600
9th Jake Summerford 568
11th Dawson Williams 566
13th Rich Pazderski 565
15th John Neely 563
20th Mitchell Kent 561
24th Jackson Schaaf 560
Douglas Williams was the HOA winner at the Collegiate Level with 579/600 and is still the Hall of Fame Captain.
At the Intermediate Level, Drake Cooper finished 5TH Overall for Men, and Abi Pazderski finished 3rd for Ladies and first year shooter Ayden McKenzie finished 10th.
At the Rookie level, Marshall Kent finished 4th overall, Grady McKenzie finished 5th and Lucas McKenzie finished 6th.
As you can see from all the strong finishes at the Intermediate and Rookie levels, the Juniors not only have a title to defend next year, but a dynasty in the making. Head Coach Zac Guerrettaz and Program Director Lee Summerford attribute their success to the excellent coach staff, dedicated families, and, most importantly, to the hard work, commitment and team spirit of their athletes.
2020 Junior US Open Recap
Backwoods Quail Club in Georgetown, South Carolina, played host to the 2020 Junior US Open this past weekend. While the forecast wasn’t looking good, we got lucky with temperatures in the 70s and only about 30 minutes of rain while we were shooting. There were more than 350 shooters there with 39 Forest City Juniors and their families making the trip. It was a good trip.
Preliminary Event
Jackson Schaaf led the way with his 100 Straight to win the Junior Varsity Division. He combined with a pair of 96s from squad mates Dawson Williams and John Neely to take the Junior Varsity Division by a strong 20 birds. Another Junior Varsity team of Walker Brooks (94), Pete Hodge (91) and Sam Connor (85) tied for 3rd Place. After Schaaf, Rich Pazderski came in 2nd individually with a 97, then Williams and Neely tied with teammate Jake Kinlaw and one other for 3rd with a 96 with Dawson Williams winning the shootoff. First year shooters Walker Brooks (94) and Owen Haas (93) had great showings for new shooters.
At the Intermediate level, the Forest City team of Drake Cooper (91), Jack McKenzie (84) and Jackson Ezelle (83) finished 3rd with Cooper claiming 3rd Place individually. On the Ladies side of the Intermediate bracket, a team of all new shooters consisting of Anna Loren Dekle, Ayden McKenzie and June McKenzie claimed 3rd Place. Abi Pazderski’s 84 and a shootoff victory landed her at the top of the podium in the Ladies Intermediate division.
The Rookie group of Marshall Kent, Lucas McKenzie and Grady McKenzie shined again taking 1st Place led by Marshall Kent’s 86 which was good for 3rd Place individually.
Collegiately, the team of Douglas Williams (98) and Colin Davis (96) joined with a former rival from Central Georgia Andrew Weiche (99) to take the top spot. Weiche finished 2nd overall and Douglas finished 4th. On the Ladies side, the team of Gracie Whitley (90), Ella Whitley (80) and Abi Pazderski (84) took the top spot – they shot at the Collegiate level because Gracie is in college even though Ella is only in 11th grade and Abi in 8th. Gracie finished 2nd individually at the Collegiate level.
Main Event
The Main Event was shot over 2 days, and we shot the Green Course Saturday and the Orange Course Sunday.
Our Collegiate squad made a big comeback on Sunday to take the Collegiate title over the University of Alabama led by Douglas Williams’ 100 straight backed up by a 99 from Weiche and a 98 from Colin Davis. Weiche’s two-day total of 198 was good for the top spot. In the Ladies’ bracket, the team of Gracie Whitley, Ella Whitley and Abi Pazderski took 2nd place. Gracie Whitley’s 173 put her in 3rd for the weekend.
In the hotly contested Varsity Division, the team of Walker McDonald (93-92), Nathan Porter (97-97) and Jake Kinlaw (90-92) tied 4th beating the team of Jake Summerford (89-97), Mitchell Kent (89-93) and Rich Pazderski (97-95) by 1 target. Porter, Pazderski and Kinlaw were all shooting up from the Junior Varsity level where two of them placed individually.
The Junior Varsity Squad of Dawson Williams (96-97), Jackson Schaaf (98-96) and John Neely (96-91) again ran away with the top prize by 18 birds. Individually, the top 4 places were won by our Juniors lead by Schaaf and Porter who tied for 1st at 194/200. Schaaf won the shootoff to seal his victory in the Main to go along with his Preliminary and cap off an incredible weekend. Dawson Williams (193) finished 3rd one bird ahead of Rich Pazderski (192). What a great showing at the Junior Varsity level.
In the Intermediate Division, Drake Cooper narrowly missed the podium shooting two more 91s to finish 3rd. He led the squad of Cooper, Jack McKenzie (86-91) and Jackson Ezelle (86-85) to Second Place. Abi Pazderski was the Ladies Intermediate champion with a pair of 87s, and the team of Anna Loren Dekle, Ayden McKenzie and June McKenzie captured 3rd Place.
The Forest City Junior Rookies team of Marshall Kent, Lucas McKenzie and Grady McKenzie won their 6th Straight event in two weeks with a 41 target win in the Main Event. Marshall Kent’s (88-82) was good for 3rd Place overall, and had his Senior brother Captain Mitchell Kent looking over his shoulder all weekend!
Fun and Guns
Saturday night they select 4 random shooters from each division for a shootoff using the Make-A-Break game format. Many of our kids were selected and some of them were shooting in their first tournament and then showcased in front of 300+ people in a one on one shootoff. After winning two rounds head-to-head, Ross Rambo, Abi Pazderski and Nathan Porter each walked away as the proud owners of new Beretta A300 shotguns!
It was a great weekend with lots of smiles, great shooting, fellowship at the pool and winning. Next stop is the SCTP National Championship in Marengo, Ohio, in July!
Thanks again for all the support and encouragement from the Forest City Family, the dedication of our shooters, the hard work from our incredible coaching staff and the support from all of our families.
