PITA Youth - Education - Shooting ~ Y - E - S

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August 4, 2009

As we came to the end of this year’s Grand Pacific it was clear the Y~E~S committee and the Executive Committee need to review where we are going with the youth program. It has been nearly two years since the committee was created to deal specifically and exclusively with Y~E~S. Many who were originally appointed to the committee have resigned for one reason or another. Some had health issues, some had other areas of interest to devote time to. The result has been a lack of continuity especially among State and Provincial leadership.

George and Joan Ahart along with Sharon Gillis and Bud Graham provided early leadership and energy to developing the Y~E~S program for the Grand Pacific. The Aharts and others have made Coon Creek a model for the development of youth shooting programs. Melanie Foster has been a mainstay in promoting and developing that program. The Executive Committee has supported our efforts admirably.

This past year Rob Miller headed the Y~E~S silent auction at the Grand, SKB donated a gun for a raffle, Joan Ahart made a quilt that was raffled, t-shirts were sold, and other activities resulting in raising more than $6000 for the program. Additionally, hundreds of PITA members have generously added $10 additional to their annual dues to provide memberships for the youth shooters. We have been blessed by the hard work and generosity of individuals as well as the broad support of the PITA membership.

From the first meeting of the Y~E~S committee it was clear our goal is to promote trapshooting as a youth activity focusing on safety and the fun of shooting. A training program was developed by Mel Finnell who has long been an instructor and trainer in 4-H youth shooting. We attempted to develop a network of instructors at the State and local levels qualified to give basic safety instruction and introduce the basic elements of shotgun shooting as it relates to our discipline of trapshooting. The instructor network has never gotten off the ground. There has been little interest shown. With the exception Gary Fogelson and John Lynch in Oregon and Tom Langley in Washington I am not aware of any other clinics or team development. In other places, Coon Creek for example, there has been some crossover from the ATA’s SCTP program (ATA has recently made some major changes along those lines).

It is clear the Y~E~S program is getting little interest or support at the local level and, in most cases, at the State and Provincial level. In Oregon there is an OSTA Y~E~S program and coordinator. In California the program is focused pretty much entirely at Coon Creek. In the past year Washington has fallen away from having an active program. At this time I am unaware of any other programs. In our minds the only way this will take root is for local clubs to generate local programs. We can sustain the scholarship program at the Grand and the Y~E~S competition at the Grand indefinitely at the level it now exists. Growing the program and realizing our goal of competition at local, state, and at the Grand is not possible without the commitment of the State associations and the hard work and dedication of local individuals and clubs. We have limited funding to help. We have some experience to draw from. What we have not seen are people willing to take leadership at the local level.

The Grand experience this year was both a glory and a disappointment. The Executive Committee, at our request, agreed to hold a separate event for Y~E~S. White Flyer and Remington provided the targets and shells at no cost for participants. RCBS donated a reloader and hosted a miss-and-out shoot off to determine the winner. Many people volunteered to keep score and keep the traps loaded. THANK YOU!

And the truth is we had five less shooters register than last year. Aside from California and Oregon there were no organized teams (teams were randomly assigned at sign up). We are clearly not achieving our objective.

The individual high-gun award for the event was won after two competitors (Zack Zanolini and Kyle Beals) ran the event then ran 125 each in the shoot off. Zack triumphed in the next 25 after the two mutually agreed to move back to the 23 yard line. There was a high level of competition throughout. Both individuals and teams turned in dramatically good scores.

While the Y~E~S committee hasn’t officially debriefed about the event there are some comments I have heard. The youth shooters themselves found the separate event “fun but tiring” as it was sandwiched in an already busy day of shooting. There was little or no time for the hot dog lunch, awards ceremony and the RCBS shootoff. Awards ended up being completed after the Championship handicap event. It was not what we had most hoped for or intended. It just was. The more experienced of our youth shooters said they would rather go back to having the event run as part of the Championship singles event. The novice shooters like having a separate event. They feel “lost” when there is too much going on around them. For many it was their first experience of a large shoot.

So we have the inevitable dilemma. Some want it one way and some another. I see both sides of it. While I believe it is a good thing to have a separate event, especially for the less experienced, the way we went about it did not work very well. It rushed the organizers, the shooters, and the Executive Committee as they went about the business of running the other events. While it wasn’t quite a disaster it wasn’t seamless by any definition. Those things need to be considered and either a return to the old way or something entirely new devised. One thought might be to hold a separate event for the novices only. The awards and hot dog feed need to have a separate and special time. The RCBS shoot off needs space and time as well. What is clear is this year the program did not work very well. We need to learn from that and move on. We also need to ponder whether the interest in promoting youth shooting exists beyond a handful of folks. It seems to be something many are willing to support financially but few feel able to promote and support youth shooting on the local level.

Lee Kiefer, Chair, Y~E~S

Late in 2007 the PITA Executive Committee called for the formation of a PITA Y-E-S committee with the goal of further defining and developing the Y-E-S program. Several people, known to have an interest in promoting youth shooting, were invited to be members. An attempt was made to include at least one person from each State and Province.

Competition is clearly a part of the Y-E-S program but it is not the foundation. “Winning at all cost” is not what we intend to teach, promote, or support. Striving to excel in a safe, sportsman-like manner is our goal for every youth shooter.

Everyone on the committee has indicated their hope that the Y-E-S competition component will promote fun and participation.