REED CITY- Scattered clay pigeon remains are peppered throughout the grass at the Reed City Sportsman Club, the home of both the Chippewa Hills and the Reed City Trap shooting teams. Once an athlete is ready to shoot, they declare ‘pull,’ and a machine sends a clay pigeon into orbit for the marksman to hit.
It’s an individual performance-based sport, but athletes still love being a part of a team.
“Very cool group of people to hang out with. It’s awesome. Oh, just great bunch of stuff. Help us. Push us” (Ethan Doughty).
“Feels like a family. I’ve been doing this for a lot of years and I’ve always come here and it felt like a family and I got support and it’s great shooting. I made a lot of friends there, and so it was just really fun shooting for Reed City” (Cooper Thomas).
Carson and Ethan both put Northern Michigan on the map at the USA High School Clay Target National Championship competition. Each athlete posted perfect scores in states, with Carson taking home the state championship to advance to be a part of the 1800 person field, with over 33 states represented in nationals.
“it’s all a mental game. It’s you. Once you get in that mindset of just focusing on the targets and not everything else, you’re all set to go. You can see that. But it’s to get in the mindset of shooting” (Doughty).
“Not trying to think about missing it, because once you start thinking that you’re gonna miss one you will. So you gotta stay calm and that helps me out. I had music playing in my ear, so I just kind of go in my own zone and just focus and shoot” (Thomas).
And the moment wasn’t too big for either athlete. They both notched perfect scores in the national championship to advance to a shoot-off with 21 other athletes, who all also achieved perfect first rounds. When the dust settled, Carson finished third and Ethan sixth out of roughly 40,000 total participants.
“Just a joy. That we worked so hard to do something like this. It pays off, and we can celebrate” (Doughty).
“I just thought of myself shooting and going back in sixth grade, me started shooting and I thought like a 20 was really good. And come up now and shoot straight win this. It’s super, super rewarding when you’re knowing that you’re super good” (Thomas).