FCGC Juniors Latest News

2020 Juniors Video

 

We sincerely thank all of the sponsors of the Forest City Juniors.  

Their valuable support helps the team cover the costs of traveling and shooting in each tournament, and we could not succeed without them.  We ask that you will also support our program by considering our sponsors for any goods or services you need. 

You can find a list of our team sponsors here CLICK HERE

 

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.

 

 

 

2020 Georgia SCTP State Championship Recap

Back-to-Back State SCTP Champion Forest City Juniors

Our Juniors successfully defended their title and their home turf winning the 2020 State SCTP State Championship over the weekend.  Bear with me, this will be a long one, because there was a lot of winning going on.

The top prize of HOA Team is based on the Top 5 scores for each team in all 3 disciplines.  To show the extraordinary depth we have this season, we had 10 different shooters contribute at the Varsity level.

Skeet:
Jake Summerford 100
Ella Whitley 99
Jackson Schaaf 98
John Neely 98
Will Rambo 97

Sporting Clays:
Jake Summerford 97
Dawson Williams 97
Rich Pazderski 96
Mitchell Kent 95
John Neely 93

Trap:
Pete Hodge 98
Rich Pazderski 98
Dawson Williams 97
Jackson Schaaf 96
Harrison Scott 96

Our team finished with a 1455/1500 to beat 2-time defending National Champions from Lake Oconee by 10 targets.

At the Collegiate level, Colin Davis was the individual Collegiate HOA and Douglas Williams was the runner-up.  Gracie Whitley was Collegiate Ladies HOA!  

Skeet

On the skeet field, we had 39 different 25-straights on Sunday! All told we had 29 shooters post a score of 90 or better.

Our Rookies (5th grade and below) dominated the Skeet field wining the top 3 individual places and running away with the Top Squad Award.  Lucas McKenzie shot 90 and Marshall Kent and Grady McKenzie shot 85s.  You read that right.

More of the same at the Intermediate-Entry level with the team of Jack McKenzie (92), Sam Anderson (90) and Jim Reynolds Morrison (84) taking the First Place as a Squad.  Jack finished 2nd and Sam finished 4th individually.

In Intermediate-Advanced we took 3rd Place as a Squad with Drake Cooper (94), Abi Pazderski (93) and Jackson Ezelle (90).

Our Junior Varsity squad finished 4th with Sam Connor (95), Owen Haas (93) and Walker Brooks (93).

In what is hard to believe, our Varsity Skeet team came in 2nd place with a score of 297/300.   Jake Summerford shot 100 straight for a 4-way tie for first and ended up Second after a 12 round shoooff.  Ella Whitley shot 99 and John Neely shot 98 (as did Jackson Schaaf).  The winning squad from Central Georgia shot 299/300.  

Ella Whtiley won a shootoff for 3rd Place Ladies.  

Jake Summerford made the All State Team and Ella Whitley made the All State Second Team. 

At the Collegiate level, Colin Davis also shot a 100 straight to win, Douglas Williams shot 99 for a tie for second and Gracie Whitley shot 98 for 4th.  

Sporting Clays

On the beautiful North Course, our kids had a great day Saturday.

Our Varsity Team of Dawson Williams (97), Jake Summerford (97) and Rich Pazderski (96) took First Place as a team.  Dawson and Jake tied for 2nd with several others and ended up in 4th after a shootoff.  Both of them made the First Team All State Team and Rich Pazderski and Mitchell Kent (95) made the Second Team.

Collegiately, Douglas Williams was the champion with a team high 98 and Colin Davis finished 2nd with a 95.

Our Intermediate-Advanced Team of Drake Cooper (90), Abi Pazderski (88) and Jackson Ezelle (73) claimed Second Place.  Drake was the I-A Champion and Abi finished in 6th Place.  Abi also finished 3rd overall in the Ladies division as an 8th Grader!

Once again, the Intermediate-Entry team of Jack McKenzie (79), Sam Anderson (79) and Jim Reynolds Morrison (76) topped the podium, with Jack and Sam tying for 4th individually and Jim Reynolds 8th.

What about those Rookies?  Yes, they won again with Marshall Kent (71) winning individual honors joined by cousins Lucas and Grady McKenzie.  The future is bright at Forest City.

Trap

We had 15 shooters over 90 on the Trap Field Saturday.

Colin Davis finished 2nd at the Collegiate level with a 97.

Pete Hodge (98) and Rich Pazderski (98) led the way for our Varsity team tying for 2nd place with 4 others.  Pete finished 2nd and Rich 3rd after a long shootoff.  The two of them combined with Dawson Williams (97), Jackson Schaaf (96) and Harrison Scott (96) to take Second Place.   Pete and Rich made the All State first team.  Dawson Williams made the second team.

The Junior Varsity Team of James Daters (91), Walker Brooks (87), Owen Haas (87), Gaines Scott (87) and Rutledge Missroon (81) finished 5th Overall in the first SCTP tournament for 4 of them.

Abi Pazderski (94) finished second in the Intermediate-Advanced Division and Drake Cooper (90) tied for 5th.  Abi also finished 4th in the Overall Ladies Division.  

And what about those Rookies?  They finished a clean sweep by winning the Trap contest by 45 targets led by Lucas McKenzie (79) and Marshall Kent (78) who finished 1st and 2nd individually joined by Grady McKenzie, June McKenzie and IV Fetterman.

Super Sporting

There is also a 50 bird Super Sporting added event which we shot on Friday.  While not part of the overall championship race, it is a fun event for the kids.

John Neely (48) finished in 3rd Place overall at the Varsity Level.  Gracie Whitley (47) and Douglas Williams (47) tied for 2nd Collegiately.

Drake Cooper (46) finished 2nd at I-A followed by Abi Pazderski (45) in 3rd.

Sam Anderson and Jack McKenzie (Mutt and Jeff) tied for 2nd in I-E with a pair of 42s.

Did I mention we have Rookie shooters?  Marshall Kent won with a 39 and Lucas McKenzie was right behind him in 2nd with a 37.  Together with Grady and June McKenzie they made it a Grand Slam!

 

We had our best State SCTP Tournament ever this year, and everyone agrees that the win is a combination of hard work by our shooters and great coaching by our incredibly dedicated coaching staff.

Nest stop is the Junior US Open Sporting Clays tournament in Georgetown SC this coming weekend, and then on to the SCTP National Championships in Ohio in July.

We finished the day with a team picture and a hat shooting ceremony on Field 5 where we shot over 20 hats including 4 100 Straight hats for Jake Summerford and Colin Davis, and Gracie Whitley and John Neely for 100 straights in 12 and 28 gauge respectively at last weekend’s Georgia State Skeet Championship.

Another big winner Sunday was Curtis Carter of Savannah who won our annual raffle for the choice of a Krieghoff K80 or $10,000 cash.  Mr. Carter is taking the money and running!  Congratulations.  Our raffle raised over $55,000 for our team.

For information, contact Lee Summerford at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

2020 Junior Blast Recap 

Big Weekend for Forest City Juniors

30 of our Forest City Juniors traveled to Middle Georgia for our first Post-Covid-Break tournament, and it was great to be out under the blue skies competing again. We shot in the Junior Georgia Blast Sporting Clays Tournament at the Meadows Gun Club. The competition is a 3 person squad event in divisions from Rookie (5th and below) to Collegiate. They also give awards for individual achievement, but the focus is on the squads.

Prelim Event

The tournament started with a 100 bird preliminary event on Friday. Your Forest City Juniors didn’t just win one division on Friday, we won them all!

Rookie: Lucas McKenzie 78, Grady McKenzie 66 and Marshall Kent 63

Intermediate: Jack McKenzie 83, Sam Anderson 77 and Jackson Ezelle 75

Junior Varsity: Dawson Williams 94, Rick Pazderski 92 and Jackson Schaaf 90

Varsity: Walker McDonald 97, Jake Summerford 95 and Mitchell Kent 87

Collegiate: Douglas Williams 95, Lance Longgrear 91 and Tripp Longgrear 87

Ladies: Abi Pazderski 84, Ella Whitley 70 and Gracie Whitley 67

We also claimed 3rd in Junio Varsity by John Neely 90, Nathan Porter 83 and Jake Kinlaw 72

Individually for the Prelim, we had the following:

Rookie: 1st Lucas McKenzie (78), 2nd Grady McKenzie (66) and 3rd Marshall Kent (63)

Intermediate: 2nd Abi Pazderski (84) and 2nd Jack McKenzie 83

Junior Varsity: 1st Dawson Williams (94), 2nd Pazderski (92) and 3rd Pete Hodge (91)

Varsity: 1st Walker McDonald (97) 2nd Jake Summerford (95)

Collegiate: 1st Douglas Williams (95) and 3rd Lance Longgrear (91)

Lady Collegiate: 1st Gracie Whitley

Lady Varsity: 3rd Ella Whitley

Lady Intermediate: 1st Abi Pazderski and 2nd Ayden McKenzie

Lady Rookie: 1st June McKenzie

Main Event

The 2 day main event consisted of 100 sporting on different course each day. Once again, the Forest City Juniors had an overwhelming performance winning 5 of the 6 divisions.

Rookie: Lucas McKenzie (79-73), Marhsall Kent (71-80) and Grady McKenzie (65-64)

Intermediate: Jack McKenzie (86-83), Sam Anderson (78-87) and Jackson Ezelle (75-76)

Junior Varsity: Rich Pazderski (97-93), Dawson Williams (92-88) and Jackson Schaaf (91-88)

Collegiate: Douglas Williams (95-92), Tripp Longgrear (91-92) and Lance Longgrear (91-88)

Ladies: Abi Pazderski (83-82), Gracie Whitley (78-90) and Ella Whitley (79-75)

We racked up individually as well:

Lady Rookie: 1st June McKenzie

Rookie: 1st Lucas McKenzie, 2nd Marshall Kent and 3rd Grady McKenzie

Intermediate Lady: 1st Abi Pazderski

Intermediate: 2nd Jack McKenzie

Junior Varsity: 1st Rich Pazderski, 2nd John Neely and 3rd Dawson Williams

Collegiate: 2nd Douglas Williams and 3rd Tripp Longgrear

Next up is the Georgia State Skeet Championships at Forest City this weekend followed by the SCTP State Championships also at our home club the following weekend.

Forest City Gun Club is proud to support the junior members of the club.  The Forest City Juniors program began in 2014, and shot in their first SCTP tournament only a few months later.