OXFORD – For the past six years, the Oxford Junior Shooters have organized the only team in New York State to attend the annual national trapshooting competition. During the last competition in Sparta, Illinois, two members of the junior team placed in the top 20. Scott Gregory and David Covey placed 16th and 19th, respectively, making them among the best junior trapshooters in the nation.
Trapshooting is similar to skeet shooting, which recently received a lot of attention when Kimberly Rhode, 33, became the first American to win five individual medals five years in a row during her near perfect record-setting Olympic performance. The major difference between skeet shooting and trapshooting is the number of locations the clay pigeons targets are lunched from. Whereas trapshooting utilizes a single launch point, skeet shooting uses multiple ones. Even though trapshooting fires clay pigeons into the air from only one launcher, the trajectory is random, forcing shooters to remain on their toes.
“As you can imagine, all of us involved with these young men are quite proud of them,” said the Oxford Junior Shooters head coach Thomas DeBrita. DeBrita’s pride for the two junior shooters stems both from “their splendid performance at the AIM national Trapshooting Championship at the World Shooting and Recreation Complex in Sparta, Illinois and of the Oxford Junior Shooters program in general.”
The Oxford Rod & Gun Club Junior Shooters has established a long history of competition on both the state and national levels. Since 2004, the Oxford Junior Shooters has been the only team in New York State to consecutively compete in state and national trapshooting competitions. Since 2006, they have been the only team to represent New York State trapshooting on the national level. Gregory and Covey’s latest achievement marks the growing success of the local program.