Shelby Township, MI - It was announced recently that two outstanding SCTP athletes from the State of Georgia, Chris Webster and Will Hinton, have been selected to join the USA Shooting National Junior Olympic Shotgun Team.
Both of these shooters train at the South Georgia Youth Shooting and Bridge Creek Clays Training Center in Hartsfield, GA which is run by Mike Simpson. Webster and Hinton will join Trey Hill of Murfreesboro, TN, and another SCTP athlete, Jordan Hintz of Burlington, WI, on the double trap team.
Webster and Hinton are not the first National Team members to come through SCTP Coach Mike Simpson's program in rural Colquitt County. Simpson's daughter, Emma was the first, followed by Josh Webb, Shane Slocumb and Dustin Anderson.
Most of the shooters who have come through Simpson's program reside in Colquitt County. But there are several shooters who are willing to travel long distances to take advantage of the USA Shooting supported facilities and Simpson's certified training.
Webster, who will graduate from Bainbridge High School this spring and enroll at Valdosta State in the fall to begin pre-med studies, has been trap shooting competitively for three years and in double trap for two. He travels three or four times a week to train at Simpson's Colquitt County facility.
Hinton, a 16-year-old sophomore at Dacula High School in Gwinnett County, makes the trip to South Georgia once or twice a month and stays for three or four days at a time. He is a two-time All-American in Sporting Clays, and according to his coach, has made a smooth transition to double trap.
Both these young men have Olympic aspirations and have their sights set on the 2016 games.
SCTP Coach Mike Simpson has been training shotgun shooters for more than 15 years at the facility near his home. He made improvements over the years as the number of youngsters looking to get involved in the shooting sports increased. Several years ago, USA Shooting named Simpson's South Georgia Youth Shooting and Bridge Creek Clays a Certified Training Center, one of just eight in the country that concentrates on providing international-style shotgun training for those wanting to pursue Olympic dreams.
Simpson says shooting sports are the fastest-growing in the nation and he is pushing to get more youngsters in his area involved in the Scholastic Clay Target Program.
The National Junior Olympic Shotgun program runs from late spring to mid-summer. The 2012 National Junior Olympic Shotgun Championships will be held July 10-17, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation (SSSF) is responsible for all aspects of the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) across the United States, including participant registration, coaches, state coordinators, state and national championships, promotion, communications, websites, public relations and growth strategies The Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation exists to raise funding and other resources for Youth Development Programs in the shooting sports industry.
SCTP is a youth development program where adult coaches and volunteers model sportsmanship, responsibility, honesty, ethics, integrity, and team work while using shooting sports programs to teach these and other positive life skills to SCTP athletes.
To learn more about SCTP call (586) 737-0805 or visit their website at www.shootsctp.org.
