North Bay Haven sporting clay target team set for Nationals

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -It is a big event ahead for some 30 or so student-athletes at North Bay Haven who are a part of the school’s Sporting Clay Target Team. Yes there is a team at NBH of budding expert marksmen!”

“We are having our national clay shooting tournament at at the Bay County Shooting Range on Saturday, June 18, from 8 to 2.” says North Bay Haven Sporting Clay Target team coach Bill Simmons. “And it’s the big national tournament. We had several kids that medaled last year. So we have a lot of expectation, high expectation for this tournament also. There’s clay shooting teams I want to say in almost all 50 states. As far as how many kids exactly are going to be competing in it, it’s in the thousands of kids that will be competing.”

So thousands of competitors, but the Buc’s will be shooting on their home range, the Bay County Gun Range.

“So basically there’s teams in about all 50 states.” coach Simmons says “And each team will shoot at their home range and all the scores are input remotely. And then they are tabulated by the Scholastic Clay Target Programming USA Clay Shooting League. And then the medals and things like that are awarded and sent right to them at their schools.”

And all that means the Buc’s will be competing against shooters they can’t see, or watch.

“Exactly, you really can’t see how your competition is doing.” says the coach “The whole goal behind this is for you to go out and play your best game. The great thing about our team is everyone competes. It doesn’t matter where they stack up as far as being the best shooter on the team or not. There aren’t really any tryouts. You come out, you shoot your best round of sporting clays. And then those scores are all tallied. And you really have no idea until those scores are all tallied and you get that report back on where everybody ended. "

We’ll pass along some highlights for you Saturday night on Newschannel 7 at 10.

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