Pleasant Valley Trap Team Succeeds at State Competitions
The Iowa High School and Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) State Trap Championships took place on May 30th - June 1st, at the Iowa State Trapshooting Association (ISTA) Homegrounds in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
In its first year of competition, the Pleasant Valley Trap Team sent 15 Student athletes from Pleasant Valley Junior High and Pleasant Valley High School who participated along with over 1400 others from across the state of Iowa.
Results are as follows:
- Iowa High School State Trap Championship, May 30th - PV Squad 1 consisting of Kyle Berst, John Jones, Tommy Cassatt, Roland Bettis-Vicary, Sam Bailey placed 81st (out of 232 teams) with a score of 419. Brenden Robinson shot 25 straight for the first time this season. Megan Wirtjes and Seth Moffitt also stepped up and shot personal best scores.
- SCTP Trap Championships - High School, June 1st: Squad 1 consisting of Brenden Robinson, John Jones, Roland Bettis-Vicary, Tommy Cassatt, Sam Bailey took 3rd Place in the State for the Junior Varsity division with a score of 450. Brenden Robinson shot 25 straight AGAIN! Megan Wirtjes tied for 7th for the JV girls with a score of 84/100. Tommy Cassatt tied for 19th with a score of 94/100. (Imagine being in 19th place and only missing 6 out of 100 birds! Tough competition...) Seth Moffitt stepped up again and got an 81.
- SCTP Trap Championships - Intermediate/ Junior High, June 1st: The Pleasant Valley Junior High Intermediate-Advanced shooters consisting of Braxton Childers, Brent Alman, Ethan Hornbuckle, Max O'Brien, Arthur Braden stepped up and took 2nd Place (in the state) with a score of 437 for the squad. Brent Alman was in 8th place with a score of 94. Ethan Hornbuckle took 11th place with a score of 92. Cameron Johns and Nate Pilger also participated and had personal best scores.
In the season-long league competition for the state of Iowa, Brent Alman took 1st place, Arthur Braden took 2nd place, Braxton Childers took 4th place after a shoot-off and Max O'Brien took 7th place after a shoot-off.
Coaches are head coach Mr. Shannon Martin and Assistant Coaches Marcia Auliff, Chris Cournoyer, Darin Oberhart, Brian Alman, Tom Corchado, Jeff Christner, Damien Dassie, Bryan Murphy, and Rodney Childers.
The Pleasant Valley Trap Shooting team formed in the Fall of 2013 when student Megan Wirtjes applied to the school to start the club after noticing that PV students that wanted to participate had to go to Davenport or North Scott to be on a team. The purpose is to give the students at Pleasant Valley another extra-curricular activity and represent their school in a positive manner.
Trap shooting is a fast growing sport that not only gives kids a fun time and another sport to compete in, it teaches the kids a lot about ethics and the great responsibility that comes with handling a firearm. It is an Olympic Sport and a life-long sport that can be shared across generations.
Pleasant Valley School Board member and Assistant Coach, Chris Cournoyer sees it as "another hook" to get kids involved in school activities and feel like they are part of the PV community. Cournoyer said, "In addition to learning gun safety and shooting skills, trap shooting involves focus, patience, teamwork, perseverance and a working knowledge of physics and math to hit a moving target. Its harder than it looks and I'm so proud of these kids and the coaches that put in the countless hours to achieve this level of success in the first year of competition. Our team has a very bright future."
For more information about our team, visit www.pvtrapteam.org
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