Final Prep Underway for Inaugural National Sporting Clay Cup
OutdoorHub 06.16.14
The USA Shooting Team has begun final preparations in anticipation of the inaugural National Sporting Clay Cup, a national fundraiser set to induce a philanthropic rush on behalf of the team with one enthusiastic goal in mind, medal success in Rio de Janeiro.
Fifty teams have signed up for the Friday, July 11th VIP Shoot, which is the maximum number. With the Friday event being sold out, USA Shooting decided to encourage participation in the Saturday, July 12th Main Event by reducing the entry fee for a team to $1,500. Individuals wishing to take advantage of this great opportunity are encouraged to contact Sara Daum at USA Shooting (719-866-4883) to sign up for a team. The event is being hosted by the American Shooting Center in Houston, Texas. The sporting clays event will include a lot of team interaction and plenty of shooting thrills in one of the hottest event disciplines the sport has going.
USA Shooting will be well represented as it has announced that 11 prominent team members, including four Olympians, will participate in the event. Hometown hero, 2008 Olympic gold medalist and current World Champion Glenn Eller will headline the team’s participation. Eller is coming off the recent Munich World Cup where he picked up a silver medal in the Double Trap event he competes in. He’ll be joined by his Double Trap teammates of Josh Richmond (USAMU/Hillsgrove, Pennsylvania), a 2012 Olympian and two-time World Cup winner on the season, as well as Derek Haldeman (Sunbury, Ohio). Other Olympians participating include rifle expert Sarah Scherer (Woburn, Massachusetts), who finished seventh in her first Olympic Games in London, along with three-time Olympian and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Jason Turner (Rochester).
National Team athletes and Olympic hopefuls Ryan Hadden (Pendleton, Oregon), Seth Inman (Independence, Missouri), Mark Weeks (Clinton Township, Michigan), Haley Dunn (Eddyville, Iowa), Caitlin Connor (Winnfield, Louisiana), and Will Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho) are set to participate as well. Hadden, Inman, Dunn and Brown will all participate in the upcoming World Championships later this summer.
The public response has been excellent with organizers already securing more than $300,000 in sponsorship and donations. Special thanks to the following organizations and individuals who took the initial steps to ensuring USA Shooting success: Fayez Sarofim & Co., American Shooting Centers, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Dr. James Lally, Smith & Wesson, Colonel D. D. Behrens, Main Street Capital, Blocker Drilling, Coppell Construction, David Mafrige Real Estate, Womble Company Inc., Alliance Graphics, Extreme Energy Services, Houston Safari Club, AAR, Inc., Briley Manufacturing, and Oasis Energy.
Exhibitors arranging to participate in the event on behalf of USA Shooting include: Beretta USA, Tracking Point – Precision Guided Firearms, Winchester, Briley Manufacturing, Yoledigo Creek Ranch, Frontera Wing Shooting Argentina, Red Bluff Prairie and International Case Co (Negrini).
Friends, partners and supporters have also stepped forth in a tremendous way to provide one-of-a-kind auction items and prizes for the event that will truly make this Sporting Clays shoot the can’t-miss event of the summer. These exclusive auction items include a private fly-fishing trip to Wyoming, a Beretta DT 11 signed by 2008 and 2012 Olympic medalists, Paraguay Wild Pigeon hunt, and a trophy whitetail hunt in South Texas along with turkey, quail, and nilgai hunts.
The USA Shooting Team is off to a tremendous start in an all-important year that is highlighted by the 2014 World Shooting Championships this September in Granada, Spain. The event is the biggest shooting event in the world and will feature over 95 U.S. Team members in competition with the first Olympic qualifying spots on the line. The Team has competed in four World Cup events piling up 16 medals including 13 in the shotgun disciplines.
The event begins with a Major Benefactors dinner on July 10 taking place at the Palm Restaurant. Sporting Clay action kicks-off the next day, July 11, with a 50-team competition available to the event’s biggest contributors. The main event will take place July 12 and is limited to 200 teams.
“Our sights are set on making this the premier Sporting Clays fundraiser of the summer,” said event organizer and USA Shooting Board Member Butch Eller. “Our USA Shooting Team is full of devoted individuals with the desire to represent the best that the shooting sports has to offer and it’s important that we come together to rally behind them with the moral and financial support they need to be successful. It is our intent to raise the profile of the athletes who represent America and serve as great ambassadors for the shooting sports in their everyday pursuits. The success of this fundraiser will help provide our team with the training and support they need to reach their potential in the future.”
Sporting Clays is a challenging clay target game designed to simulate field shooting. On a Sporting Clays course, shooters are presented with a wide variety of targets that duplicate the flight path of game birds, such as flushing, crossing, incoming and other quartering shots. Courses are laid out in natural surroundings and typically include 10 to 12 shooting “stations” with shooters moving from one station to the next to complete the course. Today, sporting clays is one of the fastest growing sports in America, with more than three million people of all ages participating both competitively and recreationally.
