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 2021 SCTP NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
2021 SCTP Nationals Report – Final
The National Championship Main Event HOA is based on the top squad of 3 skeet shooters, 3 sporting clays shooters and 5 trap shooters who shoot 200 targets in eaxh event. After the close of skeet and sporting, we were down 8 targets to the Etowah Valley Mambas from North Georgia and ahead of the Allen Eagles out of Texas by 2.
Our Varsity Trap Squad of Dawson Williams, Rich Pazderski, Elliott Cribbs, Jackson Schaaf and Nathan Porter fired a 480/500 Friday to make up 9 birds giving us a 1 bird lead over the Mambas going into the final day. That’s right, 1 bird!
We tell our shooters over and over that every shot counts, and what better example than a 1 bird lead after 1700 targets. The meaning behind that is that we are a team and you can’t give up if you are having a bad day or you miss a few. Your team is relying on you to stick with it and go after every target.
After raining all night Friday night, the rain continued throughout the day on Saturday. We shot at 3 and 3:30 and the Good Lord must’ve known because the weather broke at 2:45 and even a little bit of sunshine came out for us.
The Varsity boys hit the field and we didn’t know the number, but had heard the Mambas had shot well. We started good, but not great dropping 6 in the first round. The next round was better as they only dropped 3. Meanwhile Zac and Doug and I are hitting refresh on our phones every 3 seconds to see how the Mambas finished. As the third round started, we saw the number. They had missed 21 for a 479, so we had to shoot 479 or better to preserve our one target lead. 12 targets out of the last 250 was all we had to give. Another good round and we headed into the final box with a 6 target margin. The crowd was gathering as others finished their rounds. No one was breathing. Pull. Bang. Hit. Pull. Bang. Hit. Then a miss. Chests tightened with ever hit and miss. 4 misses. 5 misses. 6 misses and there was no more margin for error with nine shots to go. Every shot counts. 8 shots to go. Dead bird. Just breathe. Dead bird. Pull. Bang. 3 to go. Dead bird. Dead bird. Dead quiet for Nathan Porter. Pull. Bang. Dead bird! Quiet. Is it enough? I screamed “ya’ll won!” and the crowd erupted!
7 months of work and we did it! Back to back HOA National Champions! 1 bird out of 2200. 2106 to 2105. Incredible. What a moment for these kids, this team, this Club!
We also had an individual National Champion in Ayden McKenzie who was Ladies Intermediate National Champion, a Runner-Up HOA for Varsity Shooter Rich Pazderski who shot an amazing 589/600 for the week, and a 3rd Place Rookie HOA finish for Grady McKenzie.
At the College level, the top four individual places were Forest City Juniors:
1 Colin Davis
2 Douglas Williams
3 Walker McDonald
4 Jake Summerford
What an incredible week we’ve had in Ohio. Lifetime memories for the best group of kids you can imagine. We totally dominated at every division from Rookie to Collegiate. 18 National Championships including the granddaddy of them all the Main Event HOA Team Award. We may have to add a wing to the Clubhouse for all these trophies!
Thanks so much to all the great families who share their kids with our great coaching staff. Thanks to the coaches who really make this happen, and thanks to the Board and the Club who make it all possible. Thanks most of all to all these great kids who do the shooting and make it all worth it for us.
2021 SCTP Nationals Report – Day 3
Friday started under cloudy skies, but the rain held off as we shot our first round of Trap and then the Doubles Skeet competition.
Trap continued the theme of 100 straights with three of them. Two of our Original Gangsters, Douglas Williams and Jake Summerford shot their first ever 100 straights in Trap standing right beside each other, and it was a great moment for these old warriors to share together. Not to be outdone, first year JV shooter Jackson Ferland put up his own kind of magic with his first 100 straight. Rich and Abi Pazderski made it a family affair with a pair of 99s that had their mom smiling from ear to ear.
Our College team finished with an impressive 492/500 led by Williams and Summerford’s 100s followed by Colin Davis with a 98, Walker McDonald with a 97 and Gracie Whitley with a 94. That puts them in good position to win their 3rd Team National Title of the week.
At the Varsity level, Pazderski and Elliott Cribbs fired 99s, Jackson Schaaf had a 97, Dawson Williams a 93 and Nathan Porter a 92. Their 480 puts the Juniors right in the hunt for the overall National HOA Championship, so be sending good vibes to Ohio at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon as they head to the line to defend their title.
We also have several ladies and young men who are chasing the podium for individual National Overall Championships in their respective divisions.
All told we had 21 rounds of 90 or better and over 40 25-straights, and Trap ain’t even our game!
After 2 days of doing work on the Skeet fields, we went back down for a victory lap in the Doubles Skeet event. Our rookies got it started with our 14th National Championship of the week by Grady McKenzie, June McKenzie and Wylie Adams. These kids are hard to beat. Grady finished 3rd individually and June finished 2nd in the Ladies Rookie division.
The Intermediate Entry squad of David Butler, Lucas McKenzie and Marshall Kent claimed the Doubles Skeet National Championship (15), and their teammates Mills Hollis, Gavin Walmsley and Emaline Haddad claimed 3rd Place. Lucas McKenzie finished 7th and Emaline Haddad finished 4th in the Ladies Division.
The Intermediate Advanced team of Ayden McKenzie (87), Drake Cooper (88) and Chase Buerger (87) finished in 3rd Place as a team and Ayden McKenzie finished 4th in Ladies.
The Junior Varsity team of Abi Pazderski (93), Jackson Ferland (89) and Pericles Lelos (85) finished 4th.
The Varsity squad of Dawson Williams (96), Jackson Schaaf (93) and John Neely (95) finished in 3rd place. Owen Haas and Rich Pazderski both tied for 4th with a pair of 98s. Ella Whitley tied for 4th in the Ladies Varsity Division with a 92.
Unfortunately bad weather threatened the complex and rained out the Skeet and Sporting Clays awards, but we secretly think the Yankees who run the show at SCTP just didn’t want to spend their evening passing out awards to all the Georgia kids again this year. We will force their hand tonight!
It’s been a great week and we’ve had a crazy amount of fun on and off the competition field. We have taken over the Hilton in a grand fashion and are having a blast. Tomorrow afternoon we go back to work to cap off another wonderful season. We will be bringing back a lot of hardware to Savannah and, if all goes well, we hope to be bringing back the HOA Trophy to where it belongs.
One thing is for sure, the national youth shooting community knows who the Forest City Juniors are, and they know that we come to win. They also see that we compete with respect for our competitors and the sport and that we honor our Club in all that we do. As Coaches, we could not be more proud of our kids not just for the way they compete, but the way they represent all of you and our club.
2021 SCTP Nationals – Day 2
Thursday was the wrap up day for Sporting Clays and Skeet, and what a day it was for the Forest City Juniors.
I told you yesterday that we had four 100 straights in Skeet on Wednesday, well we only had SIX 100 straights on Thursday, with two of them leading to 200 straights by Owen Haas and Nathan Porter. The other 100s were by Collegiate shooter Jake Summerford, Varsity Shooters Rich Pazderski and John Neely, and Junior Varsity shooter Jackson Ferland. The 200 straights tied the mark set by Douglas Williams several years ago and put them in a 4 way tie for first place. After a long shootout, Owen Haas finished 2nd and Nathan Porter finished 4th. That’s right, the competition is so elite that you can not miss for 2 days, shoot 200 straight and end up in 4th Place. Teammate Rich Pazderski’s 199 put him in 5th Place based on tiebreaker with ties that included John Neely who finished 6th and other big Varsity finishes by Will Rambo with a 198, James Daters with a 197 and Jackson Schaaf with a 196.
Now, before I go further, let me back and up and set the stage a bit. The SCTP is the largest youth shooting organization in the World and our kids are competing in the National Championships. Shooters compete in their age divisions as 3-man squads for Skeet and Sporting Clays and 5-man squads for Trap. The emphasis is on the squad awards as it is a team sport, but they also give out Men and Ladies individual awards in each age groups. The Overall Team National Championship – which we won last year – is the combination of each team’s top Skeet, Sporting and Trap squads. This year there are around 2,900 competitors from over 250 teams across the Country. That’s a lot of kids.
We are traditionally very strong in Skeet and Sporting Clays. The last two days our kids moved the needle from very strong to incredibly strong.
Starting in the Rookie Division (5th Grade and below), let’s start the National Championship Count with 1 with the Squad of Grady McKenzie (183), June McKenzie (154) and Wylie Adams (148) claiming the title by 21 birds. Grady finished 2nd individually and June finished 4th in the Ladies division.
The Intermediate-Entry (IE) Division is for first year Middle School shooters, and they won our 2nd National Championship of the Week with the Squad of Marshall Kent (191), Lucas McKenzie (186) and David Butler (163). First year shooters Mills Hollis (181) and Gavin Walmsley (179) had great Nationals debuts as well. Marshall Kent’s 191 was good for 2nd Place and Lucas finished 7th.
At the Intermediate-Advanced (IA) level (2nd and 3rd year shooting in Middle School), the Squad of Jackson Ezelle (191), Sam Anderson (191) and Jim Reynolds Morrison (180) finished in 3rd Place. 7th Grader Ayden McKenzie claimed the IA Ladies National Championship (#3) with an incredible score of 193.
The Junior Varsity team of Abi Pazderski (194), Jackson Ferland (192) and Pericles Lelos (182) finished in 2nd Place and Abi finished 3rd in the Ladies JV competition.
You read above about the strong individual finishes at the Varsity level, but what you don’t know is that not only did we win the Varsity National Championship as a squad (#4), but we had another squad as Runner-Up and yet another as the 3rd Place squad. That’s right, we swept the top 3 spots outclassing 150 other squads all just hoping to place somewhere. Just downright greedy.
Last but not least, the College Division which takes the Top 3 scores from our college shooters and led to our 5th National Championship when Walker McDonald (198), Jake Summerford (197) and Colin Davis (197) dropped just 8 targets over 6 rounds to tie the Pella Eagles out of Iowa. After waiting all afternoon, they made quick work of the Eagles winning the shootoff on the first station to claim the title. Collegiate Gracie Whitley shot a pair of 98s to win the Ladies Collegiate National Championship. That’s right, six different National Championships in Skeet alone. It was good couple of days in the corn and bean fields of Central Ohio.
Moving on the Sporting Clays, we will start with the Original Gangsters in the College Division. They also won the National Championship (#7) in Sporting Clays on some pretty tough courses led by Douglas Williams, Colin Davis and Walker McDonald. Douglas and Colin tied at the top spot with a pair of 190s and will shoot it off for the Championship later in the week (#8).
Varsity shooters Rich Pazderski, Dawson Williams and Jackson Schaaf finished 3rd with Pazderski’s impressive 98-96 putting him in 2nd Place. Dawson’s 94-93 tied him for 5th.
At the Junior Varsity level, Jackson Ferland won the National Championship (#9) with a 91-87 combo, and his squadmate Abi Pazderski finished 3rd with a combined 168. Together with Pericles Lelos, they finished in 2nd Place by just 4 birds.
The IAs did well with 2 of the top 6 squads. In 4th Place was Jackson Ezelle, Ayden McKenzie and Jim Reynolds, and in 6th Place was Drake Cooper, Miles Carson and Jack McKenzie. Cooper finished 4th with a 179 and Ezelle 5th with a 175. News Alert: Ayden McKenzie can shoot and she is not just a one-trick pony as she claimed her 2nd National Championship of the day (#10) with a combined 167 to win by 1 bird. As we like to say, every shot counts. Way to go Ayden!
Keeping it in the family, Ayden’s brother Lucas McKenzie (159) finished 3rd in the IE division and led his squad with Marshall Kent and David Butler to the IE Sporting Clays National Championship (#11). Emaline Haddad finished 3rd in the IE Ladies Division.
Last, but never least, our Rookie squad of Grady McKenzie, June McKenzie and Wylie Adams doubled up to win their second squad National Championship (#12) of the day. June defended her 2020 Rookie National Championship with another one this year bringing the total National Championship count to 13. Unbelievable!
This morning we start with Trap at 9AM and then shoot Doubles Skeet at Noon, then a little rest before the Skeet and Sporting Awards ceremony where we get to claim the fruits of our labor, and load down Coach Dan DeGood’s trailer!
2021 SCTP Nationals – Day 1
We have Ammo!!!
Juniors Back in Ohio
55 of your Forest City Juniors and their families and coaches are back in Columbus Ohio to defend their National Championship at the 2021 Scholastic Clay Target National Championships. The team made the trip on Tuesday and started shooting Wednesday with 100 rounds of Skeet and 100 rounds if Sporting Clays. They will do the same today starting at 8am and then finish with Trap and Doubles Skeet on Friday and Saturday.
Skeet started out in unprecedented fashion with not one, not two, not three, but four 100 straights by Collegiate Mitchell Kent and Varsity shooters Nathan Porter, Will Rambo and Owen Haas. We also had eight 99s by James Daters, Colin Davis, Walker McDonald, John Neely, Rich Pazderski, Jackson Schaaf, Dawson Williams and, last but certainly not least, 6th Grader Marshall Kent! Your Pro Shop Princesses Gracie and Ella Whitley threw in a pair of 98s for good measure and Rookie 5th Grader Grady McKenzie shot an incredible 94. All in all we had 40 shooters with 90 or better and an amazing 61 different 25 straights!
On the Sporting Clays Course we had some great scores on a tough course led by Rich Pazderski with an amazing 98 followed by a strong 96/95/94 squad of scores from Collegiate shooters Colin Davis, Douglas Williams and Walker McDonald.
The Skeet and Sporting competitions wrap up today and Forest City is in prime position for multiple Squad National Championships across the divisions from Rookie through College and everywhere in between with several individuals gunning for their own National Championships.
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
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.
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)
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.
